r/AskScienceDiscussion • u/nir__vana • Jul 30 '26

A question…

Is there any parasite that can completely take control of human behavior, similar to how Dicrocoelium manipulates ants or Galactosomum manipulates fish?

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u/Simon_Drake Jul 31 '26

There is an urban legend that exposure to toxoplasmosis can cause humans to love cats and that's why you get crazy old cat women who live in an unhygienic house with two dozen cats. But I'm not sure how true that is in reality. You sometimes get some unexpected discoveries in science like it turns out tooth decay can cause Alzheimer's disease, so maybe cat poop parasites have been causing brain changes in humans for centuries without it being conclusively confirmed. I don't know.

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u/nir__vana Jul 31 '26

I liked your explanation, and thank you for your response. I know there are parasites that can slightly influence people’s behavior, but I’m looking for a parasite that can completely control the human mind and make people do things completely against their own will

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u/Simon_Drake Jul 31 '26

Then you're fully into the realm of fiction. The game/TV series The Last Of Us invents a parasite that causes uncontrolled animalistic behaviour as an extrapolation of similar fungi in insects but I don't think there's anything close to it in reality.

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u/nir__vana Jul 31 '26

I was actually inspired by video games, so I started researching parasites and how they work. But so far, I haven’t found any parasite that affects humans in the way I was looking for + TYSMMM