Take the wheel

Grrrr.....hssss!

This...this I would only let 5th grader to write.
This show such and incompetence of understanding infections and blood tests that I can't even....I can't even fathom that a usually well research comic like this would do this!

Yes. Many people, up to 86% of a population have ANTIBODIES against toxoplasma.
That doesn't mean these people has toxoplasma, it only means their immune system at some point fought toxoplasma.
And it certainly dose not mean that 86% of the population has and ACTIVE toxoplasma infection!!!!
Do get your facts right!

Sincerely a Danish teacher in pathology and genetics.

@SnigePippi

Here you go with your learning and book stuff about the difference between infections and antibodies. Yeah, 86% of population doesn't have an ACTIVE toxoplasma infection, but those 86% HAD and active infection at some point in their lives, and therefore were craaaazy! And that also means that at any given moment some portion of the population does actually have an active infection. Therefore everybody is crazy! Logic. Can't argue with that.

I really hope people understand that it's not actually true. 84% of people in France at some point in their lives had the parasite and developed the antibodies to it, so they don't actually have the parasite anymore.

@Grahor Thank God, someone here shows a little bit of common sense !

Woahh! I can't believe there is some people that really believe that explanation! This is a comic for god's sake everything is to take with second degree!
But let's get some facts right:

1- Toxoplasma gondii is a parasite adapted to cats and rats. They are not adapted to humans and we are just accidental hosts. Does it influences rat's behavior? Yes, because Toxoplasma adapted in such a way so that it can end his cycle in the cat (which is the definitive host).
2- Toxoplasma is a parasite found worldwide. Around 50% of the world population is or was infected at some point.
3- In humans, toxoplasma produce symptoms of mild cold, usually we don't even realize we were infected. Where it is dangerous is for pregnant women, because the parasite affect the foetus. But that's only if the woman doesn't possess an inmunity against it, meaning that she has never been in contact with the parasite at some point on her life. Otherwise our body can easily fight it. That's why they say that pregnant women should be careful with cats.
4- Prevalence means you possess INMUNITY against the parasite. It doesn't mean necesarly you have the parasite right now, just that you were infected at some point in you life and you developped an inmunity. When they say 84% is infected, you are talking about the prevalence and it means that 84% of the population was infected at some point in their life and have inmunity.
5- Prevalence is high in countries where people lives a lot with cats. Prevalence is high in UK, Spain, Germany, France, etc...
6- Personally I don't think that French are more agressive driving than any other country (except those who live in Paris, but Paris is like another world for French xD), you should go to Roma one day...
7- Recent studies demonstraded..... nothing. Really, right now the studies doesn't have any relevant information and don't have any definitive conclusion.

Otherwise nice comic as always!

@Eli7 #7 is a bit misleading. That there is no definitive conclusion means little as it pertains to scientific studies. Almost no area of study have among all studies a "definitive conclusion". There are however several more recent studies that point towards behavioural changes in humans exposed to the parasite. Some of the things are relatively easy (at all possible) to measure such as increased leves of testosterone and dopamine, others such as the exact changes this causes in an individual persons behavioral patterns are a bit more fuzzy. It's true that you can't (based on current research) say "this is exacly what happens to everyone infected", but you can say that there is substantial evidence to support the theory that T. Gondii can and does cause behavioural changes in infected humans. But as always: Further research is needed.

@Jonathan When they say that there is no definitive conclusion it means usually that nothing proves that theory, so saying that it is because of a parasite is nonsense. Parasites are optimized for a specie in particular, and usually when it ends by accident in another animal, it doesn't end well for it (what happenes in most cases is that the parasite's cycle is stopped, and it cannot evolves or reproduce).
The person who is drawing says he visited France twice, but i assume that when he says France, he is talking about Paris. Now, Something you should know is that people driving in Paris is aggresive, but I have seen that in other cities such as Rome or Madrid. Instead of assuming it is because of a parasite, i would assume first it is because of the stress, the traffic jams and because people are running late to work (which is terrible in Paris, you can get stuck one hour because of the traffic).
Also, as i have already mentionned before, this parasite is extremely frequent, especially in countries who has a lot of cats as pets. Then why this parasite would transform people into rude persons in France, and not in others countries? It should affect everyone equally.
Instead of looking into scientific reasons, one should use logical reasons first. People are mostly agressive when they are stressed, Paris is a really stressful city when you have to work there, so first blame the living environnement or even the education (there is jerks everywhere in the world, you are bound to finf quite a few in France) instead of a poor parasite that problably is cursing his luck for ending up in a human instead of a rat like it should have xD
In fact, my comment was more because i was surprised by how much people believed that and wikipedia.....

P.S: There is also T.gondii in Denmark by the way ;)

@Jonathan It's true that you can't (based on current research) say "this is exacly what happens to everyone infected", but you can say that there is substantial evidence to support the theory that T. Gondii can and does cause behavioural changes in infected humans. But as always: Further research is needed.

This sentence is false because for now there is no substantial evidence to support the theory. Is there parasites that affects human's brain, yes. This one? Highly unlikely. It only affect rat's brains, not even cat's brain (and it is the definitive host!). They are trying right now to study the effects of T. gondii at a molecular level, but even so, studying it just at a molecular level is complicated because humans are a whole more complicated. Studies are made, but because it is been many years that this subject is studied, and nothing has been found that can indicate that it is because of this parasite, i highly doubt that they will found something. Or they are going to say that it can predispose to agressivity if it combines with others factors ------------------> translation: we have no idea, we didn't find any conclusive answer to support this theory, but we can't eliminate it completely.

But well, research is like that, you are looking for something and find Something else non-related instead but it is still progress

Saying that people is aggresive just because of this parasite is incorrect, before that, you have to consider: living environment, education, stress, hormones, drugs, tumor, etc.... How do you know that it is because of the parasite and not because of the person itself? To be sure we should study during years people who are not affected, and then contamines them with the parasite and study its effects for as many years as before. Such thing is impossible and that's why research is extremely dificult in humans, especially when it involves psychology. You can control the environment in rats, but you cannot do that in humans whithout locking them and controling environement, food, relatioship, etc...

I am positive to T. gondii, my friends are, my family too and our cars are in perfects shapes without any dents xD (By the way i live on Spain right now and the prevalence is high in this country too).

But well, i now have a perfect excuse to be rude. By the way, sorry if my comment seems rude, but it is because of the parasite ;)

I can't believe I read all these text brick comments... But anyways I will make a tl;dr version of this to anyone who happen to see this.

TL;DR
T. Gondii can't be solely blamed for any behavioural changes of the hosts.
There are another factors such as stress which caused by occasional factor in daily life.
Eli implies the current research is on going at molecular level, but it is doubted (by Eli) they would found anything new.
Because it has been years of research and they haven't made conclusion,
behavioral changes is indeed could be made by T.Gondii infection alone.

@Eli7 Completely agree. And yes, I am a French medical doctor. And I drive very cautiously. And my car has plenty of dents in it.

@Eli7 Thanks for the explainer! Sure sounds a lot less scary when you can cure from it, the comic kinda gave me the impression that once you're infected with this parasite you're infected for life. Does one's brain also return to normal after curing from the parasite or has there been no investigation into that yet? Or is that beyond your knowledge on the subject? (You do sound like quite the expert by the way )

@Zeust The brain isn't affected at all in humans ^^'
As I said, parasites are optimized for a specie in particular, and usually when it ends by accident in another animal, it doesn't end well for it. What happens in most cases is that the parasite's cycle is stopped, and it cannot evolve or reproduce. What happens when you get this parasite is that your inmunity system is mobilized to Attack it, the poor parasite during this time is completely lost because obviously human's bodies is different that rat and it cannot go into the brain by the path that was planned for the rat. Your inmunity system attacks and destroy the parasite causing milds colds symptoms, and antibodys are created to protect the system even quicker next time the parasite come into our system.
It is those antibodies that medecine detects, but it is only indicative of if you have ever been in contact or not wth this parasite, Nothing more.

I love how it makes the men more rude and suspicious, but it just makes women nice and compassionate.
Looks like parasites are sexist XD

More rude and suspicous? Do americans have it to? *sniggers*

@Geldermalsen Yep, most of them probably do
i can confirm
most Americans where i live are ignorant and believe everything they see, hear, or read

rip me

@TeaAndBiscuits Canada is basically America 2.0

@Geldermalsen sounds fun

@TeaAndBiscuits They are the best thing Britain has created.

@Geldermalsen

A significant upgrade, with a great many of the most persistent bugs and problems in the base code fixed? Sure, we'll take that metaphor. ^_-

@Hinoron It’s not even a metaphor, that’s exactly what Canada is compared to the USA

Never heard of toxoplasmosis behaving differently in women, only heard of it causing paranoia and aggression in anyone regardless of sex. Even in popular culture it's more well known to cause paranoia and aggression in females than anyone else, hence the "crazy cat lady". Googling just now i couldn't find anything about this "nicer and more compassionate" affect on women either. There was a note that some of the behavioural changes may be sex based, but nothing really clarified on how so and in general the nature of these effects are poorly studied.

I did find this neat little (unrelated) tidbit though:

"There is a negative association between an infection with the parasite T. gondii and multiple sclerosis, therefore, researchers have concluded that toxoplasmosis infection could be considered a protective factor."

In other words, being afflicted with toxoplasmosis /might/ help prevent the development of MS. That's pretty neat.

Please, dont ruin a good story with cold facts!

@The_Catman In Denmark a study has shown that if a woman is infected she is 50% more likely to commit suicide.

@The_Catman I did just find a dutch article that also mentions that men with toxoplasmosis behave more recklessly while woman become nicer. Here is the source that they mentioned: Flegr J (2007) Effects of Toxoplasma on Human Behavior Schizophrenia Bulletin 33 (3), 757–760. Pretty scary idea tbh

This sounds like bullshite

@Thane_of_Fife

Oui, monsieur.

@Thane_of_Fife Actually, catshit

That's stupid and basically offensive, how did you even get to think this was actually a thing ?

@AlphaXXI Well first question, in which province of France do/did you live in? I know a friend from Brittany and she doesn't really mention any crazy driving going on.

@CuriousNeko I'm from Brittany. And yeah this whole "driving like crazy" thing is really blown out of proportions. We usually say it's parisians who drive like nuts. But it's mostly the whole "oh, they must have a brain parasite" applied to so many freaking people that I find offensive.

@@ No.

@CuriousNeko Depends of the place mostly. In big cities, people are a bit more "nervous" because it's generally annoying to get stuck in traffic. But globally, it's far from being crazy (after, i've spent one year in India, so my scale "Crazy" for driver might be slightly different uhuh).

Bleh. Thqt story was way out of proportion and didn't even explain it right.

Some 80% of all French have toxoplasma ANTIBODIES. Meaning their body have fought the parasite. Dosen't mean they have an ongoing infection.

Jesus take the wheeel~
Take it from France's haands~
Cause they can't do this on there own~
Stop letting go ofthewheelfrance~