Master Guitar Solos app! mhlo.co A parasite that turns rats into zombies and manipulates them into losing their fear of cats has been uncovered by scientists at Stanford University. Cat urine normally acts as natural deterrent to rodents, who are keen to keep their distance from their natural predators. But researchers found that Toxoplasma-infected male rats exposed to cat urine suffered an increased activation in the brain regions involved in sexual attraction. At the same time, the brain regions that govern fear were paralyzed. The parasite, a common single-celled organism called Toxoplasma gondii, infects all sorts of animals, including rats, in which it causes a strange transformation. For obvious reasons, rats normally avoid cats. In the presence of cat urine they become very timid — unless they're infected with Toxoplasma. Research over the past 10 years has shown that infected rats drop their normal fearful "freezing" response, and instead go exploring. They even approach the cat smell. Bad news for the rats, but very good news for the parasite, because Toxoplasma reproduces sexually only in cats. Parasite infects rat. Cat eats rat. Parasite reproduces. At least two billion people worldwide are infected by the protozoan, many from eating infected meat. Initial symptoms are mild flu, after which the parasite forms cysts that lodge in the brain. There they remain for decades and are thought to have little or no effect in adults, except in people with compromised ...
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