Comment on Spiders Georg
Dasus@lemmy.world 1 day agoI now understand cat language.
Nah, it’s just the parasites in their poop which infest your brain and make you ignore what little assholes they are.
In rodents, T. gondii alters behavior in ways that increase the rodents’ chances of being preyed upon by felids. Support for this “manipulation hypothesis” stems from studies showing that T. gondii-infected rats have a decreased aversion to cat urine while infection in mice lowers general anxiety, increases explorative behaviors and increases a loss of aversion to predators in general. Because cats are one of the only hosts within which T. gondii can sexually reproduce, such behavioral manipulations are thought to be evolutionary adaptations that increase the parasite’s reproductive success since rodents that do not avoid cat habitations will more likely become cat prey. The primary mechanisms of T. gondii–induced behavioral changes in rodents occur through epigenetic remodeling in neurons that govern the relevant behaviors (e.g. hypomethylation of arginine vasopressin-related genes in the medial amygdala, which greatly decrease predator aversion).
en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Toxoplasma_gondii#Behavio…
They say it’s “generally asymptomatic in humans”, but that’s just the parasites talking.
BudgetBandit@sh.itjust.works 1 day ago
I’ve fallen too deep in this rabbit hole… I’ll be back with a statement once I’m done.
Dasus@lemmy.world 1 day ago
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