Dopamine: Is this how Toxoplasma gondii controls your brain?

It’s estimated that 15 percent of people in the UK are infected with Toxoplasma Gondii (Toxo), a bizarre mind-altering parasite capable of driving rodents to suicide. Now scientists have discovered this peculiar creature directly affects the production of dopamine in the mammalian brain.

For a long time people speculated that there could be a link between Toxo and dopamine, but now researchers from the University of Leeds have proven that in an affected brain, Toxo produces and releases many times the normal level of the hormone. 

The research goes hand in hand with a previous study carried out by lead scientist Dr Glenn McConkey that found Toxo had the enzyme for producing dopamine encoded into its genome.

It could be this abundance of dopamine that encourages rodents to approach, rather than run from, their predators (cats) as the hormone regulates fear and, in some cases, encourages the animal to seek sensations, some even believe the rodent becomes sexually attracted to the cat.

Toxo prefers to make its home in the brains of rodents, as it can only breed in the intestines of cats who ingest the parasite after eating there willing rodent meal. But, due to our close relationship with felines, we can often become the mind-bending bugs accidental hosts.

Dr McConkey believes this new research could shed more light on the treatment of human neurological conditions accosotaed with dopamine such as schizophrenia, Parkinsons disease and attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD).