Infection with T. gondii has been shown to alter the behavior of mice and rats in ways thought to increase the rodents' chances of being preyed upon by cats.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Toxoplasmosis

It can infect humans. It may be a risk factor for schizophrenia, OCD, bipolar disorder and other mental health issues. The evidence seems inconclusive at this time.

The path how the parasite infects rodents, then cats, then humans is very complex and not at all consistent, most articles on the Internet dumb it down way too much.

This Youtuber has an awesome explanation on it: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rdlHNhrMw-A

Also, his channel is translated from Hungarian, it's an awesome channel btw.

Oh, but you do see people running towards cats! They keep them indoors and feed them.

While uninfected cubs stayed an average of 300 feet away from lions, cubs that had Toxoplasma antibodies in their blood had ventured within an average of 142 feet from the predators, a dangerous proximity. These differences disappeared after the cubs turned one, perhaps because the survivors learned not to get too close to the felines.

Do keep in mind that evolution mostly works on the level of genes, and perhaps individuals. It doesn't really work on the level of the population.

See eg https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Group_selection

People make their own 'luck'.

The headline says more reckless.

I wouldn’t consider it a stretch to say some people are definitely more reckless. Whether there’s a causal link, I couldn’t say.

What is really interesting – how human toxoplasma prevalence varies per country.

I had toxoplasmosis and I drive a bit on the aggressive side.

Trematodas are really interesting too https://www.newscientist.com/article/2129880-parasite-living...

Robert Sapolsky's work is an abundant resource on the topic[1].

[0] https://www.pnas.org/content/104/15/6442

[1] https://scholar.google.de/scholar?hl=en&q=sapolsky+toxoplasm...

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leucochloridium_paradoxum

National Geographic video (warning, kinda gross): https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=Go_LIz7kTok

- cordyceps fungi that cause ants to climb to high branches and clamp their jaws to them before dying so the fungus' can sprout out of their heads: https://www.nationalgeographic.com/animals/article/cordyceps...

- Anomotaenia brevis: a tapeworm that causes ants to live unnaturally long lives and emulate the queen ant's pheromones causes the colony to expend energy feeding the infected ants at the expense of the rest of the colony: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anomotaenia_brevis

And for another plain gross entry: a tongue-eating louse that eats and takes the place of a fish's tongue. I guess it gets to eat when the fish eats? https://www.nationalgeographic.com/science/article/tongue-ea...

https://twitter.com/daveaitel/status/1410308330808135691

How spread is this phenomenon really? How many generations does it take for a parasite to evolve into such spectacular effect? Where are the non spectacular mind controlling parasites and how are they influencing their host?

[1] https://icds.uoregon.edu/wp-content/uploads/2011/07/CryanDin...

Not sure if one can separate the effect prolonged xyletol substitution has on the microbiome from the effect it has on the actual human portion of the metabolism, if one replaces any addiction with something else the original cravings will subside over time.

It's a theory as it's incredibly hard to do studies about. The main study this was based on was done on people with the flu - they used students who had the flu jab (mild flu effects etc) - and saw that those students went out more and socialised. Subsequent studies think this might be because they felt more protected being jabbed, rather than the virus affecting their behaviour.

How spread is this phenomenon really? How many generations does it take for a parasite to evolve into such spectacular effect, where are the non spectacular mind controlling parasites and how are they influencing their host?

There are plenty of pop-sci articles about how the microbiome seems to be influencing our nervous system in a multitude of ways. So the microbes may actually have a way to "vote" in my analogy.

'Highlights • Multiple families, genera, and species were associated with psycho-cognitive traits.

• Megamonas is associated with cognition, mood, and personality.

• Pseuroramibacter_Eubacterium is associated with mood and personality.

• Fusobacterium is associated with personality and cognition.

• Butyrivibrio is associated with cognition.'

Edit: just to add I'm a layperson so not able to asses the quality of this study, if someone is more able to do that I would welcome the input.

For example we don't think Ebola intentionally causes bodies to necrotise so much they infect everyone around them but that's what happens.

While the neurological reprogramming of complex behavior is well documented even among earthly parasites (see Dicrocoelium; Entomophthora; Holy See; Sacculina; Toxoplasma; others), it should be emphasized ...

The first comment says "It may be a risk factor for schizophrenia, OCD, bipolar disorder and other mental health issues. The evidence seems inconclusive at this time. "

Yes, it can cause all those horrible things (I think that only autism is missing on the list), only there is no proof for that, but, nowadays, who cares if the story fits twitter size post and has a chance to get "viral".

[0] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=27615857

That would be my first candidate, yep. A problem with this is the disconnection between effect and cause. The startup could be lying to themselves and entering in a greyhound race trying to develop a solution for a problem that was not the problem that they though it was. There is a risk that the final product will have a really short life (and makers hate to be told that). "Ozone machines against Covid" came to my mind for example.

Blind faith towards bad (or biased) science is a problem.

Is like discovering that people drunk with severe headache drive reckless and are more prone to have accidents at work and "all had drive licenses", and concluding that "people with drive licenses are worse drivers than people without; we have another publication".

Sorry, but this is not "creature is mind-controlling me", is "my brain is on fire" (and my experiment design could be better).

In the experiment the hyaena cubs supposedly move closer to lions. Maybe the cubs are just uncomfortable and trying to find a relief instead to defying lions?. Are the same ill cubs moving more far away from lions also?. I would want to see the Standard deviation for distances, and a control group in the articles related with predator urine to discard just an increase in wandering searching for water.

Are this cubs moving toward water sources where lions gather?

Are this cubs looking for a more shadowed spot where lions rest?

This kind of studies precooked to produce the desired answer while ignoring the, more probable, but non publishable and less sexy explanations border pseudosience. Extreme claims require extraordinary solid proofs, not tabloid style management.

If anyone can find me this presentation I’d be grateful. I fear a pro-cat conspiracy drove this video off the internet.

If a bullet hits somebody (non-fatally) in the head, a common outcome is the behavior of this person changing forever. The bullet is not remote mind-controlling them from the drawer of the physician; It has caused some brain damage that is a different concept. Toxoplasmosis does exactly the same. It causes a brain damage in the cub, so they are more vulnerable.

Do you have any sources for your claim that that toxoplasmosis doesn't have any behaviour altering effects?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Russell%27s_teapot

That's an incredibly weak straw man that you've built there.

Toxoplasmosis has been shown to alter the behaviour of prey species in such a way that they become attracted to the urine of members of predator species - and this attraction significantly improves toxoplasmosis' chance of reproduction.

The "mind control" is very limited - but when a sick animal pretty much ends up programmed to dive into a predator's mouth "THIS IS NORMAL" could not be further from the truth.