How Common 'Cat Parasite' Gets Into Human Brain and Influences Human Behavior

ScienceDaily ^ | Dec. 6, 2012 | NA

[neverdem]

When its host experiences fear or repulsion to something it fears or instinctively knows is hazardous, the protozoa detects these chemicals and excretes enzymes that make its host’s brain excrete *dopamine* in the pleasure center of its brain.

It's not just dopamine apparently. My main reason for liking the press releases at ScienceDaily is that about 9 out of 10 ten times they give you a link to the original citation near the end.

GABAergic Signaling Is Linked to a Hypermigratory Phenotype in Dendritic Cells Infected by Toxoplasma gondii

During acute infection in human and animal hosts, the obligate intracellular protozoan Toxoplasma gondii infects a variety of cell types, including leukocytes. Poised to respond to invading pathogens, dendritic cells (DC) may also be exploited by T. gondii for spread in the infected host. Here, we report that human and mouse myeloid DC possess functional γ-aminobutyric acid (GABA) receptors and the machinery for GABA biosynthesis and secretion.

BTW, I came across that number for the global prevalence of T. gondii after stumbling into:

Red Brain, Blue Brain: Republicans and Democrats Process Risk Differently, Research Finds

The NY Times had a story about the burden of Chagas disease. So I checked ScienceDaily to see if they had something when I noticed the last link.

[yefragetuwrabrumuy]

Toxoplasma uses GABA to protect itself from attack by the immune system, but I didn’t want to add that to the dopamine comment as, while important, it is somewhat extraneous to mind control.

[S.O.S121.500]

BOOKbump

[bert]

Toxoplasmosis is widely believed to cause people to repeatedly and sillily post cat pictures on Free Republic.

Since the condition is not fatal, the practice will likely waste bandwidth eternally

[loungitude]

Thank you for this information.