Re:How does a parasite create zombie-like behavior?
by DonaldFisk on Wednesday November 11, 2015 @03:11PM
(#10548945)
The papers I referred to have not been retracted, and there have been other studies which back their conclusions. So they aren't false ideas.
The changes described are the result of people being infected after birth, and not the result of damage to foetal nerves.
I'm not sure how a protozoan could be said to do anything "on purpose". What it does to rats is, however, clearly adaptive behaviour which enhances its chances to complete its life-cycle. This doesn't work when people are infected, as we are are a dead-end host, but it's thought it affects human behaviour via a mechanism similar to the one which works well in rats.
The behaviour of people infected is in no way similar to that of B-movie zombies, I'll grant you that.
Re:How does a parasite create zombie-like behavior?
by pvaldes on Wednesday November 11, 2015 @03:25PM
(#10549031)
It should be noted that Cattell's Sixteen Personality Factor Model has been greatly criticized by many researchers because of the inability of replication
The changes described are the result of people being infected after birth, and not the result of damage to foetal nerves.
I'm not sure how a protozoan could be said to do anything "on purpose". What it does to rats is, however, clearly adaptive behaviour which enhances its chances to complete its life-cycle. This doesn't work when people are infected, as we are are a dead-end host, but it's thought it affects human behaviour via a mechanism similar to the one which works well in rats.
The behaviour of people infected is in no way similar to that of B-movie zombies, I'll grant you that.