This Is Your Brain On Parasites

How Tiny Creatures Manipulate Our Behavior and Shape Society

Kathleen McAuliffe

• Verlag: Mariner Books
• Jahr: 2016
• ISBN:
  9780544193222
• Thema: Biowissenschaften
• Thema: Mikrobiologie

"Engrossing … [An] expedition through the hidden and sometimes horrifying microbial domain." — Wall Street Journal "Fascinating—and full of the kind of factoids you can't wait to share." — Scientific American Parasites can live only inside another animal and, as Kathleen McAuliffe reveals, these tiny organisms have many evolutionary motives for manipulating the behavior of their hosts. With astonishing precision, parasites can coax rats to approach cats, spiders to transform the patterns of their webs, and fish to draw the attention of birds that then swoop down to feast on them. We humans are hardly immune to their influence. Organisms we pick up from our own pets are strongly suspected of changing our personality traits and contributing to recklessness and impulsivity—even suicide. Germs that cause colds and the flu may alter our behavior even before symptoms become apparent. Parasites influence our species on the cultural level, too. Drawing on a huge body of research, McAuliffe argues that our dread of contamination is an evolved defense against parasites. The horror and revulsion we are programmed to feel when we come in contact with people who appear diseased or dirty helped pave the way for civilization, but may also be the basis for major divisions in societies that persist to this day. This Is Your Brain on Parasites is both a journey into cutting-edge science and a revelatory examination of what it means to be human. "If you've ever doubted the power of microbes to shape society and offer us a grander view of life, read on and find yourself duly impressed." —Heather Havrilesky, Bookforum

Index

A | B | C | D | E | F | G | H | I | J | K | L | M | N | O | P | Q | R | S | T | U | V | W | X | Y | Z

A

Aarøe, Lene, 173, 174, 175

acetylcholine, 101

Ackerman, Joshua, 168, 173

acne, 153

Aframomum, 142

agriculture

antibiotic use, 115

citrus greening, 40–41

evolution and, 199, 200

start of, 195–96

Allocyclosa bifurca, 43–46

American cockroaches (jewel wasp), 47–49

Amerindians, 137

Ampulex compressa, 47–49

amygdala, 191

ancestors

gender and, 160

healing instinct, 129, 145

hygiene, 192, 194, 195–96

“normal,” caveman version, 167–68

Anderson, Roy, 19

anger, 107, 168, 169

ant trematode, 10

anterior insula, 190–91

anthelmintic medicine, 97

antibiotic use, 115–16, 117

antibodies, 74, 79, 80, 93, 214

antidepressants, 105

antipathy, 170–71

ants, 51–53, 131–32, 146

appetite control, of mosquitoes by plasmodia, 37–38

aromatic compounds. See chemical signaling

arousal. See attraction; sexual behavior

asexual reproduction, 138–39

Asian citrus psyllid, 40

assortative mating, 215

attraction

beauty, 134–35

fatal feline, 69, 71, 72–73

illness or weakness, 134

in malaria, 38–39

MHC, 135–39

sexual motivation and, 86

See also sexual behavior

authoritarianism, 212–13

autism spectrum disorder, 102

autocracy vs. democracy, 211, 212–13

B

barnacles, in crabs, 49–51

bathroom hygiene, 130–31

bats, 21

bears, medicinal compounds, 146

beauty, as health marker, 134–35

bees, 53–55, 130–31

Behavioral and Brain Sciences (...