The DOI matches its Crossref record; 25 of the 25 references it cites were found in a registry or an index.
Fatal attraction in rats infected with Toxoplasma gondii
Open accessAbstract
We tested the hypothesis that the parasite Toxoplasma gondii manipulates the behaviour of its intermediate rat host in order to increase its chance of being predated by cats, its feline definitive host, thereby ensuring the completion of its life cycle. Here we report that, although rats have evolved anti-predator avoidance of areas with signs of cat presence, T. gondii's manipulation appears to alter the rat's perception of cat predation risk, in some cases turning their innate aversion into an imprudent attraction. The selectivity of such behavioural changes suggests that this ubiquitous parasite subtly alters the brain of its intermediate host to enhance predation rate whilst leaving other behavioural categories and general health intact. This is in contrast to the gross impediments frequently characteristic of many other host parasite systems. We discuss our results in terms of their potential implications both for the epidemiology of toxoplasmosis and the neurological basis of anxiety and cognitive processes in humans and other mammals.
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Cites
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The characterization and modelling of antipredator defensive behavior
Blanchard, R. J., Blanchard, D. C., Rodgers, J., & Weiss, S. M. (1990) · Neuroscience & Biobehavioral Reviews · doi:10.1016/s0149-7634(05)80069-7 · Cited by 367
The evolution of parasite manipulation of host behaviour: a theoretical analysis
Poulin, R. (1994) · Parasitology · doi:10.1017/s0031182000085127 · Cited by 268
Parasitic helminth infection and cognitive function in school children
Nokes, C., Grantham‐McGregor, S., Sawyer, A. W., Cooper, E. S., & Bundy, D. A. P. (1992) · Proceedings of the Royal Society B Biological Sciences · doi:10.1098/rspb.1992.0011 · Cited by 232
Effect of Toxoplasma gondii upon neophobic behaviour in wild brown rats, Rattus norvegicus
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Cited by
Flegr, J., Prandota, J., Sovičková, M., & Israili, Z. H. (2014) · PLoS ONE · doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0090203 · Cited by 700
Microbial genes, brain & behaviour – epigenetic regulation of the gut–brain axis
Stilling, R. M., Dinan, T. G., & Cryan, J. F. (2014) · Genes, Brain and Behavior · doi:10.1111/gbb.12109 · Cited by 637
Parasitic manipulation: where are we and where should we go?
Thomas, F., Adamo, S., & Moore, J. (2005) · Behavioural Processes · doi:10.1016/j.beproc.2004.06.010 · Cited by 580
Parasite Manipulation of Host Behavior
Poulin, R. (2010) · Advances in the Study of Behavior · doi:10.1016/s0065-3454(10)41005-0 · Cited by 503
Lyte, M. (2013) · PLoS Pathogens · doi:10.1371/journal.ppat.1003726 · Cited by 399
Metadata
- Authors
- Berdoy, M., Webster, J. P., & Macdonald, D. W.
- Venue
- Proceedings of the Royal Society of London. Series B: Biological Sciences
- Publisher
- The Royal Society
- Published
- 2000-08-07
- Volume
- 267
- Issue
- 1452
- Pages
- 1591-1594
- ISSN
- 0080-4649 (ISSN-L)
- 0962-8452
- 1471-2954
- OpenAlex
- W2150003410
- Cited by
- 734
- References
- 25
- FWCI
- 8.27
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- green
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- Berdoy, M., Webster, J. P., & Macdonald, D. W. (2000). Fatal attraction in rats infected with Toxoplasma gondii. Proceedings of the Royal Society of London. Series B: Biological Sciences. https://doi.org/10.1098/rspb.2000.1182
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Contains information from the Semantic Scholar Academic Graph Datasets, made available under the ODC Attribution License (ODC-BY 1.0).
Semantic Scholar’s data is described in: Kinney, R., et al. (2023). The Semantic Scholar Open Data Platform. arXiv:2301.10140.
