It's become more known recently that microbes, especially in the gut, affect our minds, and that they may even evolve in conjunction with us, as shared in our existing threads:
Quote:In a 2022 study, immunologist Iliyan Iliev of Weill Cornell Medicine in the US and colleagues found that adding Candida albicans to the guts of mice made them more resilient to damage of their gut linings caused by bacterial infections or heavy antibiotic use. Strengthening the gut wall may be a defence mechanism by the body to prevent the fungus and other microbes from escaping the gut and infecting other tissues, Iliev says.
But the big surprise came when the team observed the rodents' behaviour. Remarkably, fungi-colonised mice were much more likely to sniff, communicate and engage with other mice – meaning that exposure to the fungi appeared to have some sort of behavioural effect too. Based on other experiments, the scientists theorise that certain molecules released by the mice's immune cells enter the bloodstream and somehow stimulate certain nerve cells in the brain that are involved in behaviour. "It was very surprising to us," Iliev recalls.
It's a mystery why, at least in mice, this crosstalk between gut fungi and the brain exists. Is it a coincidence that fungus-triggered immune signals affect the brain, or "is that actually deliberately done by the fungus to benefit its survival?" Iliev asks. Perhaps mammalian bodies somehow benefit from changing their behaviour in response to fungi, Iliev speculates.
Is this so surprising though given what @David001 shared here?
(2025-07-17, 10:01 AM)David001 Wrote: In his book, Merlin Sheldrake describes a fungus that infects a particular species of ant. The fungus takes over the creature and forces it to behave in an unnatural way. The infected ant climbs up a tall grass stalk, and then its jaws clamp shut, and it dies. The fungus then sprouts from the corpse spreading spores to infect further ants.....
I find this particularly interesting because it is extraordinary that the fungus has acquired enough knowledge about the ant to pull off this feat. As Merlin points out, this far exceeds what an evil neuroscientist (my analogy) could achieve.
I love stuff like this cause it highlights how our ideas of consciousness and cognition are so limited. Scientists put so much emphasis on the brain and only the brain, but in reality our entire body is relevant to our cognitive function in ways we don't even understand. We see the importance of the gut biome, but what about our individual organs? Do they influence us in ways we don't even know? Is that way we have phenomena around transplant patients and their donors? It's very exciting stuff.
Just for interest's sake, on a related note, here's a throwback article from Daily Grail. It was linked as a related article in the same daily News Briefs page on which I found the link to the article in the OP.
By John Reppion for Daily Grail on July 18th, 2014.
[Broken links in the original article fixed in the below quote from it]
Quote:Back in March science Writer and blogger Ed Yong gave a TED talk on the subject of parasites and the fascinating ways in which they can sometimes “subvert and override the wills of their hosts” (a full video of the talk posted here on DG). In his talk Yong spoke about how rodents infected with the brain parasite toxoplasma gondii effectively become “cat-seeking missiles”; seeking out felines and getting themselves eaten just so that toxo can then develop and reproduce inside the cat. As much as one third of the global human population may be infected with toxo. Although mild flu-like symptoms occasionally occur during the first few weeks following exposure, toxo generally produces no symptoms in healthy human adults (toxoplasmosis can be fatal to infants and those with weakened immune systems, however). Opinions are currently divided among researchers as to what, if any, influence toxo has on the behaviour of infected humans (although links to schizophrenia are amongst the effects which have been hypothesised [1]). But, says, Yong in his TED talk, even if it isn’t from toxo, “Given the widespread nature of such manipulations [of hosts by parasites], it would be completely implausible if humans were the only creature not under the same thrall.”
Quote:At the beginning of July 2014 a paper entitled Midichlorians – the biomeme hypothesis: is there a microbial component to religious rituals? was posted on the open access, peer-reviewed online journal Biology Direct (full text here). The paper puts forward the following hypothesis:
Quote:Some microorganisms would gain an evolutionary advantage by encouraging human hosts to perform certain rituals that facilitate microbial transmission. We hypothesize that certain aspects of religious behaviour observed in human society could be influenced by microbial host control and that the transmission of some religious rituals could be regarded as a simultaneous transmission of both ideas (memes) and organisms. We call this a “biomeme” hypothesis
Practices such as the touching and kissing of holy relics, drinking from or bathing in sacred waters, and ritual flagellation or piercing of the body are postulated as a possible means of transmission of specific parasites. The practice of fasting, “known to reduce total gut bacteria and affect the gut microbiome composition“, could have a part to play in a parasite’s life cycle, or else its effect upon the host. The veneration, or eschewing, of certain domestic animals could be a means of controlling which parasites the host is exposed to. Even celibacy in holy men and women could be linked to parasitic passengers; “it has been noted that many parasites eliminate their hosts reproductive potential as they channel all available resources to maximize their own reproductive success.”
That paper is also an interesting - although admittedly speculative, perhaps far-fetched, and potentially offensive (to religious adherents) - read.
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