"Start the morning with everybody's favorite brain-altering parasite."
See more; I've mentioned this before:
Lafferty's analysis found that countries with high Toxoplasma prevalence had a higher aggregate neuroticism score, and western nations with high prevalence also scored higher in the 'neurotic' cultural dimensions of 'masculine' sex roles and uncertainty avoidance."There could be a lot more to this story. Different responses to the parasite by men and women could lead to many additional cultural effects that are, as yet, difficult to analyze," said Lafferty.
Comments
There have been a lot of posts about toxoplasma by various ScienceBloggers, but I haven't yet seen any discussing what the implications are for cat owners. What kind of precautions should cat owners be taking? If the cat is a strictly indoor cat, could there still be a danger? How long do the parasites persist in the cat's system?
Posted by: Kurt | May 16, 2007 12:42 PM
The cat owners should be using birth control, that's mostly what I know. Pregnant women are at risk of increasing schizophrenia in offspring.
Your other questions, sorry, I'm not sure. Wikipedia?
Posted by: Sandra | May 16, 2007 2:57 PM