http://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2012/03/how-your-cat-is-making-you-crazy/8873/1/

Infectious virus that got popular for making rats attracted to cats, but now its new effects on humans are coming out.

Warning: words.

Quote :

"In the Soviet-stunted economy, animal studies were way beyond Flegr’s research budget. But fortunately for him, 30 to 40 percent of Czechs had the latent form of the disease, so plenty of students were available “to serve as very cheap experimental animals.” He began by giving them and their parasite-free peers standardized personality tests—an inexpensive, if somewhat crude, method of measuring differences between the groups. In addition, he used a computer-based test to assess the reaction times of participants, who were instructed to press a button as soon as a white square popped up anywhere against the dark background of the monitor. The subjects who tested positive for the parasite had significantly delayed reaction times. [/]br] .... [b]Compared with uninfected men, males who had the parasite were more introverted, suspicious, oblivious to other people’s opinions of them, and inclined to disregard rules. Infected women, on the other hand, presented in exactly the opposite way: they were more outgoing, trusting, image-conscious, and rule-abiding than uninfected women. ... The results meshed well with the questionnaire findings. Compared with uninfected people of the same sex, infected men were more likely to wear rumpled old clothes; infected women tended to be more meticulously attired, many showing up for the study in expensive, designer-brand clothing. Infected men tended to have fewer friends, while infected women tended to have more. And when it came to downing the mystery fluid, reports Flegr, “the infected males were much more hesitant than uninfected men. They wanted to know why they had to do it. Would it harm them?” In contrast, the infected women were the most trusting of all subjects. “They just did what they were told,” he says. Why men and women reacted so differently to the parasite still mystified him. After consulting the psychological literature, he started to suspect that heightened anxiety might be the common denominator underlying their responses. When under emotional strain, he read, women seek solace through social bonding and nurturing. In the lingo of psychologists, they’re inclined to “tend and befriend.” Anxious men, on the other hand, typically respond by withdrawing and becoming hostile or antisocial. Perhaps he was looking at flip sides of the same coin. Closer inspection of Flegr’s reaction-time results revealed that infected subjects became less attentive and slowed down a minute or so into the test. This suggested to him that Toxoplasma might have an adverse impact on driving, where constant vigilance and fast reflexes are critical. He launched two major epidemiological studies in the Czech Republic, one of men and women in the general population and another of mostly male drivers in the military. Those who tested positive for the parasite, both studies showed, were about two and a half times as likely to be in a traffic accident as their uninfected peers. "

Quote :

"He’s published some data, he tells me, that suggest infected males might have elevated testosterone levels. Possibly for that reason, women shown photos of these men rate them as more masculine than pictures of uninfected men. “I want to investigate this more closely to see if it’s true,” he says. “Also, it could be women find infected men more attractive. That’s something else we hope to test.” "

Quote :

"Still, he concedes, the parasite could be very bad news for a small percentage of people—and not just those who might be at greater risk for car accidents. Many schizophrenia patients show shrinkage in parts of their cerebral cortex, and Flegr thinks the protozoan may be to blame for that. He hands me a recently published paper on the topic that he co-authored with colleagues at Charles University, including a psychiatrist named Jiri Horacek. Twelve of 44 schizophrenia patients who underwent MRI scans, the team found, had reduced gray matter in the brain—and the decrease occurred almost exclusively in those who tested positive for T. gondii. After reading the abstract, I must look stunned, because Flegr smiles and says, “Jiri had the same response. I don’t think he believed it could be true.” When I later speak with Horacek, he admits to having been skeptical about Flegr’s theory at the outset. When they merged the MRI results with the infection data, however, he went from being a doubter to being a believer. “I was amazed at how pronounced the effect was,” he says. “To me that suggests the parasite may trigger schizophrenia in genetically susceptible people.” "

Quote :

"She quickly confirmed, as previous researchers had shown, that infected rats were more active and less cautious in areas where predators lurk. But then, in a simple, elegant experiment, she and her colleagues demonstrated that the parasite did something much more remarkable. They treated one corner of each rat’s enclosure with the animal’s own odor, a second with water, a third with cat urine, and the last corner with the urine of a rabbit, a creature that does not prey on rodents. “We thought the parasite might reduce the rats’ aversion to cat odor,” she told me. “Not only did it do that, but it actually increased their attraction. They spent more time in the cat-treated areas.” She and other scientists repeated the experiment with the urine of dogs and minks, which also prey on rodents. The effect was so specific to cat urine, she says, that “we call it ‘fatal feline attraction.’” "

Quote :

"After I return from Prague, Flegr informs me that he’s just had a paper accepted for publication that, he claims, “proves fatal feline attraction in humans.” By that he means that infected men like the smell of cat pee—or at least they rank its scent much more favorably than uninfected men do. Displaying the characteristic sex differences that define many Toxo traits, infected women have the reverse response, ranking the scent even more offensive than do women free of the parasite. The sniff test was done blind and also included urine collected from a dog, horse, hyena, and tiger. Infection did not affect how subjects rated these other samples. "

Quote :

"As the scientific community digested the British team’s dopamine discoveries, Robert Sapolsky’s lab at Stanford announced still more attention-grabbing news. The neuroscientist and his colleagues found that T. gondii disconnects fear circuits in the brain, which might help to explain why infected rats lose their aversion to cat odor. Just as startling, reports Sapolsky, the parasite simultaneously is “able to hijack some of the circuitry related to sexual arousal” in the male rat—probably, he theorizes, by boosting dopamine levels in the reward-processing part of the brain. So when the animal catches a whiff of cat scent, the fear center fails to fully light up, as it would in a normal rat, and instead the area governing sexual pleasure begins to glow. “In other words,” he says, “Toxo makes cat odor smell sexy to male rats.” The neurobiologist Ajai Vyas, after working with Sapolsky on this study as a postdoctoral student, decided to inspect infected rats’ testicles for signs of cysts. Sure enough, he found them there—as well as in the animals’ semen. And when the rat copulates, Vyas discovered, the protozoan moves into the female’s womb, typically infecting 60 percent of her pups, before traveling on up to her own brain—creating still more vehicles for ferrying the parasite back into the belly of a cat. Could T. gondii be a sexually transmitted disease in humans too? “That’s what we hope to find out,” says Vyas, who now works at Nanyang Technological University, in Singapore. The researchers also discovered that infected male rats suddenly become much more attractive to females. “It’s a very strong effect,” says Vyas. “Seventy-five percent of the females would rather spend time with the infected male.” "

2/9/2012 11:34:16 AM

Nothing to see here. some more thepeter bold shit

I'm Krallum and I approved this message.

2/9/2012 11:36:04 AM

fuck it

2/9/2012 11:36:32 AM

well i know i'm not infected, cat pee is one of the foulest smelling things ever.

[Edited on February 9, 2012 at 11:39 AM. Reason : also the attractiveness to females part ]

2/9/2012 11:39:02 AM

In Soviet Russia vagina smells like cat piss

2/9/2012 11:41:09 AM

Quote :

"introverted, suspicious, oblivious to other people’s opinions of them, and inclined to disregard rules"

fuck

Quote :

"Also, it could be women find infected men more attractive."

alriiiight

2/9/2012 11:45:01 AM

Quote :

"Also, it could be women find infected men more attractive."

Any women want to weigh in? Because then this must be one handsome looking motherfucker right here:

2/9/2012 11:46:15 AM

this is also covered somewhat in this Radiolab podcast
http://www.radiolab.org/2009/sep/07/

super fascinating

free will isn't real

2/9/2012 1:58:52 PM

tldr;

i scanned it and read "urine of a rabbit"

that was enough

2/9/2012 2:03:57 PM

meow?

2/9/2012 2:05:19 PM

If you're going to use bold, don't bold half of the text.

2/9/2012 2:13:17 PM

Quote :

"Infected women, on the other hand, presented in exactly the opposite way: they were more outgoing, trusting, image-conscious, and rule-abiding than uninfected women. "

this sounds like some weird sexist shit

2/9/2012 2:15:06 PM

this might have something to do with the ways in which men and women (often, not always) cope with anxiety and stress

men tend to become more solitary and distrustful

women seek comfort in community

2/9/2012 2:16:34 PM

ugh, generalizations about the sexes are so trite. finding exceptions would be trivial.

Quote :

" “Can you guess from observing someone whether they have the parasite—myself, for example?,” I ask. “No,” he says, “the parasite’s effects on personality are very subtle.” If, as a woman, you were introverted before being infected, he says, the parasite won’t turn you into a raving extrovert. It might just make you a little less introverted. “I’m very typical of Toxoplasma males,” he continues. “But I don’t know whether my personality traits have anything to do with the infection. It’s impossible to say for any one individual. You usually need about 50 people who are infected and 50 who are not, in order to see a statistically significant difference. The vast majority of people will have no idea they’re infected.”"

...a statistically significant difference of women who are dressed in fancy clothes and do as they are told, and men who are distrustful and crude. very easy to quantify.

[Edited on February 9, 2012 at 2:23 PM. Reason : ]

2/9/2012 2:20:36 PM

^^Did you read the article.... that's pretty much what it says.

Of course, that does not sound very believable to me. Men would start dressing terribly because... they are distrustful?

[Edited on February 9, 2012 at 2:21 PM. Reason : asdfasdf]

2/9/2012 2:21:09 PM

whatever, this guy is just making bigoted "observations" about his patients (and himself, it would seem) and trying to say that they occur in statistically greater significance as their uninfected peers. he's trying to quantify being trusting or not over the patient's willingness to take medication that is not their normal medication without being told why. pretty ridiculous experimental set-up, really.

2/9/2012 2:26:55 PM

men would start dressing terribly because they are becoming socially withdrawn

yes, I read the article

2/9/2012 2:27:04 PM

yes, Green Jay

I agree with your statements and hold them more valid than researchers at a university and the editorial staff of The Atlantic

you walk as a god among men

2/9/2012 2:28:10 PM

I recognize that it's hard to quantify "acts like an asshole" but I just don't see how describing these behaviors is really linked to his research in gray matter shrinkage in schizophrenics. It's entirely likely that KATHLEEN MCAULIFFE is presenting some quotes out of context to "aid the story," but it seems like the guy really might be projecting his negative personality traits onto his other patients and attempting to attribute them to virus. He didn't say that he has schizoprenia, he said he has the negative personality traits in question. And since this doesn't even occur enough to be a diagnostic aid, he's really just disparaging his patients by saying that some of them act like that.

at least they aren't tainting corners of the room with cat urine and seeing where the patients decide to hang out.

2/9/2012 2:53:08 PM

The "sexist shit" comes from this unbolded quoted passage...sorry, I assumed, uh, fuck it, I'll bold it here:

Quote :

"Why men and women reacted so differently to the parasite still mystified him. After consulting the psychological literature, he started to suspect that heightened anxiety might be the common denominator underlying their responses. When under emotional strain, he read, women seek solace through social bonding and nurturing. In the lingo of psychologists, they’re inclined to “tend and befriend.” Anxious men, on the other hand, typically respond by withdrawing and becoming hostile or antisocial. Perhaps he was looking at flip sides of the same coin. "

2/9/2012 3:11:13 PM

I'm Krallum and I approved this message.

2/9/2012 3:13:40 PM

Quick, someone with the scriptz just bold the entire thread.

2/9/2012 3:15:01 PM

lol

2/9/2012 3:16:06 PM