Toxoplasma Infected Rats Love Their Enemies
- Wed 17 Aug 2011 09:57:PM
When a healthy rat smells a cat, it flees. But rats infected with the Toxoplasma brain parasite actually follow cat odors, often presumably to their doom, red in tooth and claw. Now researchers have found out exactly what’s going on in the rat’s infected brain--it’s in love. The study is in the journal Public Library of Science ONE . [Patrick K. House, Ajai Vyas and Robert Sapolsky, Predator Cat Odors Activate Sexual Arousal Pathways in Brains of Toxoplasma gondii Infected Rats, link to come] [More]
Source: Toxoplasma Infected Rats Love Their Enemies