Post by Logan on Mar 30, 2016 6:11:41 GMT -6
Pity the cats. They’re always getting blamed for something.
In the 13th century, Pope Gregory IX declared them evil and worthy of death, which led to their widespread killing. More recently, they’ve been accused of decimating U.S. birds and other wildlife, as well as of being all-around jerks.
Now there’s this: Cats cause road rage.
That’s been one common takeaway from a study, published last week in the Journal of Clinical Psychiatry, that is the latest to link the common parasitic infection toxoplasmosis to behavior changes or psychiatric disorders in humans. This one found that people with intermittent explosive disorder — who have recurrent outbursts of extreme anger, like road rage — are more than twice as likely as healthy people with no psychiatric disorders to have been exposed to t. gondii, as the parasite is known.
T. gondii‘s survival depends on cats, because it reproduces only in cat intestines and is spread via feline feces. So if t. gondii can control your mind or behavior, the thinking goes, then cats are the culprit. But don’t disavow your cat just yet.
Read more: www.washingtonpost.com/news/animalia/wp/2016/03/30/read-this-before-blaming-road-rage-on-your-cat/
In the 13th century, Pope Gregory IX declared them evil and worthy of death, which led to their widespread killing. More recently, they’ve been accused of decimating U.S. birds and other wildlife, as well as of being all-around jerks.
Now there’s this: Cats cause road rage.
That’s been one common takeaway from a study, published last week in the Journal of Clinical Psychiatry, that is the latest to link the common parasitic infection toxoplasmosis to behavior changes or psychiatric disorders in humans. This one found that people with intermittent explosive disorder — who have recurrent outbursts of extreme anger, like road rage — are more than twice as likely as healthy people with no psychiatric disorders to have been exposed to t. gondii, as the parasite is known.
T. gondii‘s survival depends on cats, because it reproduces only in cat intestines and is spread via feline feces. So if t. gondii can control your mind or behavior, the thinking goes, then cats are the culprit. But don’t disavow your cat just yet.
Read more: www.washingtonpost.com/news/animalia/wp/2016/03/30/read-this-before-blaming-road-rage-on-your-cat/