Eat, PREY, Love... Tales of Parasites and Mind Control

Ok... I apologize for the pun in the title. It is from a great TED Talk from science writer Ed Yong titled "Suicidal crickets, zombie roaches, and other parasite tales." In this talk he discusses the ways that parasites control the behavior of their hosts in order to further their own agendas.




One example is the toxoplasmosis microbe, affectionately referred to as "Toxo". Not only does this parasite cause expectant fathers around the world to get stuck changing the litter box, but it can change the brain of a mouse so that it removes its instinctual fear of its predator, the cat.




 Instead of fearing cats and fleeing to safety, the rodent is attracted to the cat and if it comes across any sign of one, it seeks it out. The reason for this is that, while "Toxo" can live inside any mammal, it can only reproduce inside of a feline host. So... Toxo hijacks the mouse and tries to get him eaten, so it can get inside of a cat to mate. Eat, Prey, Love... get it? ;-)

The talk describes some other parasitic horror stories that exist in nature and introduces the idea of whether or not the behavior of humans could possibly be affected like many other creatures.

To be on the safe side... I would probably hold off on watching this until some time has passed since your last meal.

If you enjoyed Mr. Yong's talk here is his blog, Not Exactly Rocket Science.