Tons of cat owners (and non-cat-owning gardeners and kids who play in sandboxes turned into litterboxes by neighborhood cats) have Toxoplasma gondii, the common feline parasite. We've known for quite some time that T. gondii makes rats lose their fear of cats, making them more likely to be eaten. We've also known that the parasite causes humans to become more reckless, and in some cases hornier .
But now, evidence is piling up that T. gondii may have something to do with the rise in schizophrenia, may be a major factor in hundreds of thousands of traffic fatalities, and could be driving people to suicide. There's new evidence that the parasite jacks up the dopamine receptors in your brain, which govern pleasure and fear responses, which could cause greater changes in behavior than we ever realized. All of which leads to the question: Just how much is this parasite controlling people's minds?
