How your cat is making you crazy

[tunca]

said:

On February 11 2012 02:24 TheToast wrote:
Very interesting article in The Atlantic for March. Here's the gist of it: A growing number of psycologists are beggining to believe that the behavior of many mammals, including humans may be able to be influenced by a parasite commonly carried by, yes, your cat.

The idea is that a common parasite carried by cats, Toxoplasma gondii, may be influencing the behavior of certain mammals to increase it's chances at reprocuding. T. gondii survives and reproduces in the intestines of the typical house cat, and spreads through excretion in cat excriment--that's poop for you lay people. A growing number of lab studies are showing very convincing evidence that this parasite may be able to enter the nervouse system of rats and change their behavior; not only reducing their aversion to the scent of cats' urine, but even enticing the rats to seek it out. Also increases their activity and likeliness to run out in the open where a cat may be able to capture them more easily. The cat then consume all or some of the captured rat thereby introducing the parasite into the intestine of the new cat where it can begin to thrive and reproduce again.

Here's the twist; this parasite not only can infect humans, but has a dramatically high infection rate. According to the scientist interviewed in the article, human infection rates are as high as 50-55% in Europe and 10-20% in the US. A few psycologists have begun to wonder if this parasite can influence human behavior the same way it does to rats; after all our genetic makeup is very similar.

Surprisingly, a growing number of studies is suggesting that it can and does. There studies have shown statistically significant links to changes in personality, car crashes, increase the chance of suicide, and even potentially cause mental damage in individuals with schizophrenia. There still aren't enough studies to prove this as scientific fact, but the evidence is growing. It's a bit scary, especially since it is speculated this may not be the only organism capable of doing this.

Link to the article: http://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2012/03/how-your-cat-is-making-you-crazy/8873/?single_page=true

It's quite long, but worth the read.

http://www.teamliquid.net/forum/postmessage.php?quote=1&topic_id=310673

[GERGE]

Bunu yaparken düşünüp anlamamız lazımdı zaten.

http://i359.photobucket.com/albums/oo32/mustafakoray/gezginden/efsaneler/sfenksa.jpg

[huun]

kedi sevenlerin arıza ve tırt kimlikler olduğunu biliyorduk. bilmediğimiz, kedileri sevdikleri için tırt olduklarıymış; tırt oldukları için kedileri sevdikleri değil.

artık kedi sevenlere tırt değil mağdur gözüyle bakacağım. teşekkürler ilginç araştırma.

[Norak]

adam bu:

http://bio.natur.cuni.cz/~flegr/ctvrtky/prednasejici/flegr.jpg

[Ardeth]

çok şükür fareler kadar aptal hayvanlar değiliz. benim sinir sistemimi etkilemeye çalışan parazitin aklını alırım.

[GERGE]

Devasa heykellerini yapmışız abi. Ama sanırım geçen zamanda dayanıklılığımız arttı hastalığa, yenilerini genelde küçük yapıyoruz.

[Ardeth]

Bi eve kedi geldiğinde, evde kedi sevmeyen insanlar bile (sevmeyen derken tiksinen manasında değil de daha ziyade nötr) bir ay sonra kediyle can ciğer oluyor.

bunun açıklamasını veriyor en azından bu olay sdf

[GERGE]

Benim alerjim var hayvanlara ama aynen bir süre sonra kaşına kaşına oynamaya başladım kendileriyle.

[Julian]

kedi kedi diye nicelerine sarıldım..

[Norak]

bir araştırma ve deneye göre kediler ortadan kaybolursa fare nüfusu tam 4 kat artıyor. 4 kat