10 ms·

The mind-controlling--probably a better phrase for them is "behavior altering"--class of parasites are fascinating from an academic sense... and nightmare fuel

The mind-controlling--probably a better phrase for them is "behavior altering"--class of parasites are fascinating from an academic sense... and nightmare fuel from a day-to-day sense. Two additional cases which I remember studying in school are: (1) A parasitic worm which causes snails to climb to clearly visible positions so that birds can eat them. These snails are usually avoidant of those positions, and so this is clear behavior alteration. (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fkiL-v4X8w8 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fkiL-v4X8w8) (2) A parasitic fungus which takes over ants, causing them to climb up high and then bite (!!! this means it can affect specific muscle movements) into a plant, before bursting from the body and spreading spores (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vijGdWn5-h8 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vijGdWn5-h8, apologies for the mildly dramatic nat-geo video) And for a good piece of sci-fi on the first-person experience of seeing others rapidly/inexplicably change behavior, check out [The Screwfly Solution](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Screwfly_Solution https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Screwfly_Solution). (It's a good read intended as commentary on patriarchy, and it also uses a behavior altering piece of biology as a key plot device.) There is a part of me that wonders if there are things (viruses/bacteria/funguses) which effect human behavior. And if in 100/1000s of years into the future we'll look back and realize that some subset of maladaptive personality traits and/or mood disorders aren't something that simply "happen" to someone, but are instead explained by biology/chemistry we didn't have a good understanding of. The same way we now look at ancient Rome and say "yeah, their use of lead pipes definitely had some effect on their psychology". Then again, there is something deeply human to say "nah, we are fully in control of our psychology. These things only happen in simpler animals, and our more-complicated biology means this could NEVER happen to us".

sleepyshift 6y ago
"This Is Your Brain on Parasites" is a fantastic book on this - https://www.amazon.co.uk/This-Your-Brain-Parasites-Manipulate/dp/0544947258/ref=sr_1_1 https://www.amazon.co.uk/This-Your-Brain-Parasites-Manipulat...
majkinetor 6y ago
> There is a part of me that wonders if there are things (viruses/bacteria/funguses) which effect human behavior. Ofc there are. For one, its well known that certain worms can affect kids in such way that they become hyperactive.
simion314 6y ago
About Romans, they intentionally put lead in wine for the taste, I am not sure if they also used lead pipes or cups.
- asveikau 6y ago
  The word plumbing is derived from the Latin word for lead (plumbum). Latin dictionaries also list the word for lead as a synonym for pipe. I think they did use lead pipes.
  - simion314 6y ago
    Thanks, I never made the connection between the plumbum(lead is called plumb in my native language) and plumbing. Anyway to confirm this I done some searching and yes, romans)and others) had plumbing and running water and used lead pipes too(though the lead in wine gives you much more poisoning where pipes are toxic only in certain circumstances) https://www.quora.com/Did-Roman-Byzantine-plumbing-extend-to-private-homes-Did-they-have-running-water-and-toilets-in-the-more-expensive-homes-Was-there-a-sewer-system-Were-there-courtyard-fountains?share=1 https://www.quora.com/Did-Roman-Byzantine-plumbing-extend-to... https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roman_lead_pipe_inscription https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roman_lead_pipe_inscription
    - solstice 6y ago
      I also heard that Roman middle classes who couldn't afford silver used leaden plates to eat off of. As lead very quickly develops an airtight patina, this is much worse than plumbing (which after installation of basically never touched) because knives, forks and just general friction of handling the plates causes the Patina to be scraped off and the food to be exposed to lead.
    - jaclaz 6y ago
      Only for the record, lead pipes have been extensively used (for drinkable water) till well into the 20th century. The inner surface of the pipes soon form a sort of lining that is normally not dangerous/poisoining. The amount of lead now admissable in EU is 10 micrograms per liter, but - at least here (Italy) - until 2013 was 25 micrograms per liter. Usually only in some particular cases (acidic waters and "stagnation" in the pipes) some relevant amounts of lead are transferred to the water. Drinking or eating from polished lead tableware is another thing.
philiplu 6y ago
For a more recent sci-fi treatment, check out "The Girl With All The Gifts" by M. R. Carey, https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/17235026-the-girl-with-all-the-gifts https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/17235026-the-girl-with-a.... A scary dystopian near-future tale of Ophiocordyceps unilateralis infecting humans.
- dstroot 6y ago
  Good book - recommended sci fi if you are into that sort of thing.
  - tyingq 6y ago
    Pretty great movie as well. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Girl_with_All_the_Gifts_(film) https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Girl_with_All_the_Gifts_...
    - abrookewood 6y ago
      Nah .. the book was great and the movie was only average.
maybe-idiot 6y ago
Researchers have found correlations between certain infections and certain mental illnesses, and have speculated the infections may cause (at least partly) the mental illnesses. After reading the book Infectious Madness, I think causality is dubious. https://www.psychiatrictimes.com/view/infectious-agents-schizophrenia-and-bipolar-disorder https://www.psychiatrictimes.com/view/infectious-agents-schi... Edit: but then again I believe causality has been established between kidney infections and cognitive impairment
dweekly 6y ago
It's not a theoretical concern. Take toxoplasmosis, which affects nearly half the human population and has measurable effects on human behavior. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2526142/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2526142/
- foobiekr 6y ago
  I've been curious for awhile and have failed to find references to how quickly the body clears toxoplasma gondii; I have read on and off about the vaccine work there, and it seems that once you've been infected re-infection does not occur. It's surprisingly hard to find papers on clearance, but also hard to find papers on long term effects vs. effects while actively infected.
  - lima 6y ago
    Toxoplasmosis is a chronic infection that is never fully cleared from the body. There is some evidence that the length of the infection correlates with strength of symptoms.
    - foobiekr 6y ago
      Ah. That does explain it.
- andi999 6y ago
  I was thinking about toxoplasmosis as well. Another example is syphilis (std), it is reported to lead in a certain phase to extremely good mood, which helps transmission.
- tuesdayrain 6y ago
  Toxoplasmosis being commonly carried by cats is one of the main reasons I will never own one. I am certain it's not a coincidence that cat scratches are associated with depression. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4700762/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4700762/
deleted 6y ago
[deleted]
xoxoy 6y ago
I take it you haven’t played “Last of Us”? It’s quite literally the entire premise of the game (what if Cordyceps infected humans?) Funnily enough that game has probably taught more people about zombie fungi than biology textbooks.
- tomasreimers 6y ago
  I have not haha, although maybe I should :)
  - ShamelessC 6y ago
    They're making an HBO show for it too by the creator of Chernobyl. It's a fantastic story and I'm glad more people will experience it. The sequel just came out as well. Without saying too much, it was "controversial" to a lot of people seemingly aligned with bigotry but I thought it was amazing. To others: If this were reddit, the mere mention of the game would spark outrage. I'm not sure if that will happen here but I see an alarming amount of hate speech here these days so I'll just say - I'm not accusing literally everyone who hated the game of being a bigot, but there sure were a lot of them.
    - tyingq 6y ago
      Thanks for sharing. The HBO produced Chernobyl is one of a very few "really, really good" things I've ever watched. It kept my attention, my wife's, and my kid's. And we are very different people, with vastly different interests.
      - ShamelessC 6y ago
        Absolutely. I loved that show. The Last of Us is obviously fictional but the stories have a very similarly melancholic tone so I have high hopes for it. Edit: I wouldn't go googling it btw. Even if there aren't spoilers in the results YouTube, etc. will think you've played it and the aforementioned controversy has created a lot of trolls determined to spoil the ending in comments and article/video titles.
jdmichal 6y ago
It's suspected that the entire stereotype of "lazy and stupid southerners" (in the US) was actually hookworm infections. This one not necessarily behavior altering, but just drastic malnutrition that eventually also affected brain function. https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/article/how-a-worm-gave-the-south-a-bad-name/ https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/article/how-a-worm-gave-the-so...
- drdeadringer 6y ago
  I remember a RadioLab podcast episode related to this.
- fnord123 6y ago
  >It's suspected that the entire stereotype of "lazy and stupid southerners" (in the US) was actually hookworm infections. It's an interesting suspicion and cool in a Freakanomics way, but it apparently lends little predictability. From your article: > But the South continues to lag behind the rest of the nation economically, with seven out of the 10 poorest states in the U.S. located there. And while stereotypes are fading, many outside of the region continue to look down on it. “When I told my family I was moving to Houston, it was like I was leaving for a leper community—they wanted to have a funeral for me,” Hotez says. “My in-laws certainly have perceptions about this being a backwards place, not realizing that some of the most sophisticated universities in the world are located in the South.” They link to the bottom 10 states by poverty level. In fact the bottom 12 states for poverty level are in the South: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_U.S._states_and_territories_by_poverty_rate https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_U.S._states_and_territ... If hookworm was the cause and hookworm was solved, why are the states still so poor? Or why don't they have University degrees? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_U.S._states_and_territories_by_educational_attainment https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_U.S._states_and_territ...
  - Gibbon1 6y ago
    > Or why don't they have University degrees? I'm reminded of Massachusetts's Old Deluder Satan Act of 1647. Which required cities and towns to fund public schools. https://www.mtsu.edu/first-amendment/article/1032/old-deluder-satan-act-of-1647 https://www.mtsu.edu/first-amendment/article/1032/old-delude... My offhand thought is for long standing cultural and historical reasons the leadership in southern states doesn't care about poor and working class education. Primarily you don't need to read to able to pick tobacco and cotton. Quite the reverse. Some places it was illegal to teach black people to read and write. Where in the north the religious culture and industrial economy made it imperative that workers be able to read and write. Can't read, can't read the bible, surely will fall into the hands of Satan. And they'll use the wrong type of oil on a machine and wreck it.
staplers 6y ago
Looking at the replies to this comment, I can say you are correct on your last point.
IIAOPSW 6y ago
One perhaps unintentional detail which makes that story realistic is that humans are the only species which processes sex and violence with the same part of the brain. In other words we are the only species prone to confuse sex and violence. It is one of just two sexual behaviors which are unique to humans (the other being we strongly prefer to do it in private).
- deleted 6y ago
  [deleted]
enkid 6y ago
A lot of people are talking about toxoplasmosis, but there's a more extreme example in the form of rabies, which basically makes you super aggressive and insane.
- carlmr 6y ago
  But only for a short time.
zby 6y ago
There arn't many such parasites for bigger animals. Toxoplasma is probably the only exception. There are some interesting arguments about why in https://www.gwern.net/docs/genetics/selection/2019-delguidice.pdf https://www.gwern.net/docs/genetics/selection/2019-delguidic...

sleepyshift 6y ago

"This Is Your Brain on Parasites" is a fantastic book on this - https://www.amazon.co.uk/This-Your-Brain-Parasites-Manipulate/dp/0544947258/ref=sr_1_1 https://www.amazon.co.uk/This-Your-Brain-Parasites-Manipulat...

majkinetor 6y ago

> There is a part of me that wonders if there are things (viruses/bacteria/funguses) which effect human behavior. Ofc there are. For one, its well known that certain worms can affect kids in such way that they become hyperactive.

simion314 6y ago

About Romans, they intentionally put lead in wine for the taste, I am not sure if they also used lead pipes or cups.

asveikau 6y ago
The word plumbing is derived from the Latin word for lead (plumbum). Latin dictionaries also list the word for lead as a synonym for pipe. I think they did use lead pipes.
- simion314 6y ago
  Thanks, I never made the connection between the plumbum(lead is called plumb in my native language) and plumbing. Anyway to confirm this I done some searching and yes, romans)and others) had plumbing and running water and used lead pipes too(though the lead in wine gives you much more poisoning where pipes are toxic only in certain circumstances) https://www.quora.com/Did-Roman-Byzantine-plumbing-extend-to-private-homes-Did-they-have-running-water-and-toilets-in-the-more-expensive-homes-Was-there-a-sewer-system-Were-there-courtyard-fountains?share=1 https://www.quora.com/Did-Roman-Byzantine-plumbing-extend-to... https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roman_lead_pipe_inscription https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roman_lead_pipe_inscription
  - solstice 6y ago
    I also heard that Roman middle classes who couldn't afford silver used leaden plates to eat off of. As lead very quickly develops an airtight patina, this is much worse than plumbing (which after installation of basically never touched) because knives, forks and just general friction of handling the plates causes the Patina to be scraped off and the food to be exposed to lead.
  - jaclaz 6y ago
    Only for the record, lead pipes have been extensively used (for drinkable water) till well into the 20th century. The inner surface of the pipes soon form a sort of lining that is normally not dangerous/poisoining. The amount of lead now admissable in EU is 10 micrograms per liter, but - at least here (Italy) - until 2013 was 25 micrograms per liter. Usually only in some particular cases (acidic waters and "stagnation" in the pipes) some relevant amounts of lead are transferred to the water. Drinking or eating from polished lead tableware is another thing.

philiplu 6y ago

For a more recent sci-fi treatment, check out "The Girl With All The Gifts" by M. R. Carey, https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/17235026-the-girl-with-all-the-gifts https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/17235026-the-girl-with-a.... A scary dystopian near-future tale of Ophiocordyceps unilateralis infecting humans.

dstroot 6y ago
Good book - recommended sci fi if you are into that sort of thing.
- tyingq 6y ago
  Pretty great movie as well. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Girl_with_All_the_Gifts_(film) https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Girl_with_All_the_Gifts_...
  - abrookewood 6y ago
    Nah .. the book was great and the movie was only average.

maybe-idiot 6y ago

Researchers have found correlations between certain infections and certain mental illnesses, and have speculated the infections may cause (at least partly) the mental illnesses. After reading the book Infectious Madness, I think causality is dubious. https://www.psychiatrictimes.com/view/infectious-agents-schizophrenia-and-bipolar-disorder https://www.psychiatrictimes.com/view/infectious-agents-schi... Edit: but then again I believe causality has been established between kidney infections and cognitive impairment

dweekly 6y ago

It's not a theoretical concern. Take toxoplasmosis, which affects nearly half the human population and has measurable effects on human behavior. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2526142/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2526142/

foobiekr 6y ago
I've been curious for awhile and have failed to find references to how quickly the body clears toxoplasma gondii; I have read on and off about the vaccine work there, and it seems that once you've been infected re-infection does not occur. It's surprisingly hard to find papers on clearance, but also hard to find papers on long term effects vs. effects while actively infected.
- lima 6y ago
  Toxoplasmosis is a chronic infection that is never fully cleared from the body. There is some evidence that the length of the infection correlates with strength of symptoms.
  - foobiekr 6y ago
    Ah. That does explain it.
andi999 6y ago
I was thinking about toxoplasmosis as well. Another example is syphilis (std), it is reported to lead in a certain phase to extremely good mood, which helps transmission.
tuesdayrain 6y ago
Toxoplasmosis being commonly carried by cats is one of the main reasons I will never own one. I am certain it's not a coincidence that cat scratches are associated with depression. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4700762/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4700762/

deleted 6y ago

[deleted]

xoxoy 6y ago

I take it you haven’t played “Last of Us”? It’s quite literally the entire premise of the game (what if Cordyceps infected humans?) Funnily enough that game has probably taught more people about zombie fungi than biology textbooks.

tomasreimers 6y ago
I have not haha, although maybe I should :)
- ShamelessC 6y ago
  They're making an HBO show for it too by the creator of Chernobyl. It's a fantastic story and I'm glad more people will experience it. The sequel just came out as well. Without saying too much, it was "controversial" to a lot of people seemingly aligned with bigotry but I thought it was amazing. To others: If this were reddit, the mere mention of the game would spark outrage. I'm not sure if that will happen here but I see an alarming amount of hate speech here these days so I'll just say - I'm not accusing literally everyone who hated the game of being a bigot, but there sure were a lot of them.
  - tyingq 6y ago
    Thanks for sharing. The HBO produced Chernobyl is one of a very few "really, really good" things I've ever watched. It kept my attention, my wife's, and my kid's. And we are very different people, with vastly different interests.
    - ShamelessC 6y ago
      Absolutely. I loved that show. The Last of Us is obviously fictional but the stories have a very similarly melancholic tone so I have high hopes for it. Edit: I wouldn't go googling it btw. Even if there aren't spoilers in the results YouTube, etc. will think you've played it and the aforementioned controversy has created a lot of trolls determined to spoil the ending in comments and article/video titles.

jdmichal 6y ago

It's suspected that the entire stereotype of "lazy and stupid southerners" (in the US) was actually hookworm infections. This one not necessarily behavior altering, but just drastic malnutrition that eventually also affected brain function. https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/article/how-a-worm-gave-the-south-a-bad-name/ https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/article/how-a-worm-gave-the-so...

drdeadringer 6y ago
I remember a RadioLab podcast episode related to this.
fnord123 6y ago
>It's suspected that the entire stereotype of "lazy and stupid southerners" (in the US) was actually hookworm infections. It's an interesting suspicion and cool in a Freakanomics way, but it apparently lends little predictability. From your article: > But the South continues to lag behind the rest of the nation economically, with seven out of the 10 poorest states in the U.S. located there. And while stereotypes are fading, many outside of the region continue to look down on it. “When I told my family I was moving to Houston, it was like I was leaving for a leper community—they wanted to have a funeral for me,” Hotez says. “My in-laws certainly have perceptions about this being a backwards place, not realizing that some of the most sophisticated universities in the world are located in the South.” They link to the bottom 10 states by poverty level. In fact the bottom 12 states for poverty level are in the South: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_U.S._states_and_territories_by_poverty_rate https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_U.S._states_and_territ... If hookworm was the cause and hookworm was solved, why are the states still so poor? Or why don't they have University degrees? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_U.S._states_and_territories_by_educational_attainment https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_U.S._states_and_territ...
- Gibbon1 6y ago
  > Or why don't they have University degrees? I'm reminded of Massachusetts's Old Deluder Satan Act of 1647. Which required cities and towns to fund public schools. https://www.mtsu.edu/first-amendment/article/1032/old-deluder-satan-act-of-1647 https://www.mtsu.edu/first-amendment/article/1032/old-delude... My offhand thought is for long standing cultural and historical reasons the leadership in southern states doesn't care about poor and working class education. Primarily you don't need to read to able to pick tobacco and cotton. Quite the reverse. Some places it was illegal to teach black people to read and write. Where in the north the religious culture and industrial economy made it imperative that workers be able to read and write. Can't read, can't read the bible, surely will fall into the hands of Satan. And they'll use the wrong type of oil on a machine and wreck it.

staplers 6y ago

Looking at the replies to this comment, I can say you are correct on your last point.

IIAOPSW 6y ago

One perhaps unintentional detail which makes that story realistic is that humans are the only species which processes sex and violence with the same part of the brain. In other words we are the only species prone to confuse sex and violence. It is one of just two sexual behaviors which are unique to humans (the other being we strongly prefer to do it in private).

deleted 6y ago
[deleted]

enkid 6y ago

A lot of people are talking about toxoplasmosis, but there's a more extreme example in the form of rabies, which basically makes you super aggressive and insane.

carlmr 6y ago
But only for a short time.

zby 6y ago

There arn't many such parasites for bigger animals. Toxoplasma is probably the only exception. There are some interesting arguments about why in https://www.gwern.net/docs/genetics/selection/2019-delguidice.pdf https://www.gwern.net/docs/genetics/selection/2019-delguidic...