Looks like it is referred to as Neurocysticercosis [0].
The parasite does not necessarily chose where it might end up, so it is up to luck. The victim probably ingest a bunch of eggs, which will find their way into different parts of the body, with different level of survivability. The brain does look like a cosy place to survive.
[0] https://www.who.int/news-room/facts-in-pictures/detail/neuro...
Probably a good way to find more: https://house.fandom.com/wiki/List_of_medical_diagnoses
Not an expert, but it definitely does. They can be incredibly specific in how they do things. I got a bad case of swimmer's itch after kayaking and it turns out it's from a parasite's larva. In a bird, it would go in through the feet, get into the circulatory system, mate inside the circulatory system, get their eggs into the bird's gut and let them be pooped out where they then need to do another process in a snail. In a human, they just get stuck in your skin and cause an immune reaction.
Therefore when they find themselves in a new animal, like a human, they're not in a "shit I'm lost!" situation, they'll just act based on the same stimuli as normal, wherever that takes them.
So, in other words, parasites can enter the body through just about any tissue.
After reading this, it got me wondering how parasites actually get into the human body if not directly ingested, as that seems fairly straightforward. That led me to this interesting snippet[0]:
> Parasites usually enter the body through the
- Mouth
- Skin
> Parasites that enter through the mouth are swallowed and can remain in the intestine or burrow through the intestinal wall and invade other organs. Often parasites enter the mouth through fecal-oral transmission.
> Some parasites can enter directly through the skin. Others are transmitted by insect bites.
> Rarely, parasites are spread through blood transfusions, in transplanted organs, through injections with a needle previously used by an infected person, or from a pregnant woman to her fetus.
Now, my remaining questions: how and why does a parasite navigate the body? For example, how did the parasite in this article likely begin in her digestive system and end up in the brain? Do they swim aggressively (yuck)? If so, does their destination matter to them?
[0] https://www.merckmanuals.com/home/infections/parasitic-infec...