Given that domesticated cats were worshipped and even mummified in Ancient Egypt, I find it hard to believe that there is a link between schizophrenia and cats from the 19th century.

I found this story entertaining but very incomplete, full of speculation.

First of all, toxoplasmosis can't be spresd to humans from a cat scratch. It has to be ingested. It's an oral-fecal infection (which means the infectious oocysts that spread the disease have to get in your mouth)so good hygine, thouroughly cooking meat, and washing vegetables is the best defense. Also, cats can only shed the oocysts (which are the way that the disease spreads)for about 2 weeks after they become infected.

About 40% of the worlds population is infected with toxoplasmosis. Most people are infected from undercooked meat or poorly washed vegetables because the oocysts are present in most soil. If a woman is infected with toxoplasmosis prior to becoming pregnant her baby is not affected. The danger is only if a woman contracts the infection for the first time during (or immediately before) pregnancy.

The incidence of car accidents in infected people is most likely due to slowed reaction times (a documented concequence of toxoplasmosis infection) and not recklessness or fearlessness caused by the parasite.

And lastly, the schitzophrenia conection mentioned that correlates the domestication of cats in the mid 1800's and the "development" of schitzophrenia is likely to be due to the fact that schitzophrenia was considered to be demon possession prior to that time- as were all other forms of mental illness? Presently, drug companies are looking for a link between toxoplasmosis and schitzophrenia in some people due to the parasites ability to disturb normal dopamine production. Seeing that about 40% of the population is infected- it seems unlikely that toxoplasmosis causes schitzophrenia in everyone.

Did you guys see this article in The Atlantic?
http://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2012/03/how-your-cat-is-making-you-crazy/8873/?single_page=true
More sinister reaching possibilities for how this parasite could be rewiring human brains. Maybe the crazy cat lady is really a zombie?

Incredible Radiolab episode. I had one thought on the connection between toxo and car crashes. It can wind up in people's eyes and affect vision (blurriness, milkiness, floaters, blind spots). As it heals, it leaves a scar, but also sometimes a permanent blind spot in one eye. When the other eye's vision overlaps, it corrects, and you don't notice the blind spot. Maybe the car crashes were related to toxo's effect on people's vision.

I don't think toxo would "control" our behavior, especially concerning emotion... it would more like alter the way we process and produce emotional behavior and responses. It's either going to change the way electrical signals are transferred or create lesions in that area of the brain, which changes the way those signals are fired and received. I don't believe there's any parasite out there responsible for mind control, it's more like mind alteration.

I'm am writing a report about schizophrania, and this really helped me out. However, I was wondering if you had a list of sources writen out so I don't have to skip around through the podcast again. You probably do somewhere,
I'm just not seeing it.

Thanks.

I recently listened to this story, and was wondering how executive producer Ellen Horne and her baby are doing? An update would be fantastic....I've found she keeps popping up in my mind (sadly, it's usually when I'm cleaning out the litter box! Not a great association, I'm afraid), and am hoping she and her baby are well.

If Toxoplasma makes you like cats, I am definitely infected. And I've wondered about this: To me and other cat lovers I asked, cats don't really have a scent. Sure, the litterbox smells and if you use perfumed litter your cat smells like that. But when I stick my nose in cat fur, I don't smell anything. All other animals I can think of have a pretty specific scent (goats, anyone?), including dogs and hamsters, also kept as pets. Did toxoplasma affect my senses in a similar way to rodents?

To uninfected people, or people afraid of cats, do cats smell?

Fight Toxoplasmosis, Swallow This

Cat genes promoted
t, gondii
changing behavior
of prey.
As scat fed mice
seek out cat odors
while disinclined
to run away

Tabby's charming gift
to women
testosterone terror
in men
for women, compulsion
to nurture
for men, compulsion
to win

An entire nation
complicit
where infestation
is high.
Patriarchy becomes
explicit,
under repression
her heart
must die
The man is trapped
as surely.
A warrior and
a thrain
honor driven,
vendetta ridden
all due to the worm
in the brain

Whole sects and religions
are founded
on secretions of
the worm.
Brain's Godspot
stimulated,
by the feline's
odious germs

No wonder the Egyptians
enthroned the cat.

So influential
was he.
(Asleep on Momets sleeve)
He conjured women's
impotence
and men's sad destiny

I am here as a representative of the Canadian Association of Toxoplasmosis Sufferers or C.A.T.S.
Toxoplasmosis is a parasitic (T.Gondii) infestation transmitted from cats to mice and to humans, through feline scat (feces). Its acute noticeable effects are light flu symptoms lasting briefly. However, the secretions of the parasite continue chronically to effect the brain, long after the infestation ends completely. In mice it drives out fear of cats and actually makes cat odor attractive to rodents.
In humans it effects male and female brains differentially. Accentuating "womanly deference and nurturing qualities" and male testosterone fueled dominance and aggression.

Remember! Stay away from kitty litter, and don't rub cats the wrong way

DAVID P WILLIAMS (902) 454 9564 April 2004
.

I am very interested in the link between Toxoplasma infection and schizophrenia being my mother has schizophrenia and my sister and I both have seizures. I think I will be looking into this further out of pure curiosity. Anyone with any information or comments along this topic, please feel free to post back. Love to hear 'em...

"The Scratch" was a very interesting show. I saw a similiar story from Doctor Kefalonia from Greece regarding this very subject. I wonder what other parasites control us humans!!!

"The Scratch" was fascinating!!! Thanks!

The Sapolsky lecture here
http://www.edge.org/documents/archive/edge307.html#tc

Kelsey Smith?
Kelsey Grammar!

Moral of the story: don't eat cat poop.

Great show on "The Scratch"

Kelsey Smith from St. Louis needs to be slapped;)
DM

This was such a horribly (by which I really mean wonderfully) fascinating story. The parasite rewires the rat's brain that it becomes aroused by the smell of a cat, its hardwired enemy?? Oh wow that is just so deeply twisted, and of course the sci-fi novel ideas just lep off the mind from there...

Or maybe not. The link seems to work correctly now.

"The Scratch" mp3 is a duplicate of "In Defense of Cheats." I wanted the segment about cats.

i hope the person who left the previous comment is trying to be funny, my lord!

Do you have editors that sift through your material before it's posted? I just noticed a mistake that might affect a viewer's outlook on your articles, and how reputable your information might be if the grammar is incorrect. "becoming an self-made expert" should be "a" instead of "an".