Cat Ladies and Parasites
One can invoke evolution to explain "Cat Ladies".
- Toxoplasmosis infected female humans have an increased probability of becoming cat horders.
- This increases the survival probability of infected cats.
- Cats living in such conditions have an increased probability of getting infected.
- This increases the the survival probability of the parasite.
PsySci Toxoplasmosis links:
http://loom.corante.com/archives/2006/01/17/the_return_of_the_puppet_masters.php
http://www.slate.com/id/2123006/?nav=ais
http://gojomo.blogspot.com/2005/07/cat-ladies-caused-by-toxoplasmosis.html
posted by PsySciGuy at 8:36 AM
3 Comments:
Hmm. At the very least, you'd see dominance by that particular parasite and elimination of competing parasites (if there are any). Then Health Services comes a-knocking and the whole ecosystem "falls down, goes boom". *laughs!*
Wouldn't be interesting to know:
1. If there have been "Cat Ladies" throughout history. From the images, I suspect they were around in ancient Egypt.
2. How quickly the parasite has evolved.
3. How effective the "puncuated evolution" provided by generations of "Cat Ladies" is.
4. What the temporal and spatial sequentiality of "Cat Lady" generation 1 to "Cat Lady" generation 2 is.
More support for the thesis...
COMMON CAT PARASITE AFFECTS HUMAN BRAINS, August 02, 2006
U.S. researchers say more than a quarter of the world's population is
infected with a feline parasite related to malaria and which causes
personality changes.
Full story at http://www.physorg.com/news73752428.html
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