Zombies have long and firmly "entered" our life as an image of mass culture, generated by classic horror films, computer games or myths based on the cult of voodoo.
However, few people know that some living organisms really become real zombies - they cease to control their behavior and obey someone else's will. They are "controlled" by parasites that penetrate their bodies, and their hosts, although it would be more likely to say "victims", in some cases become people. In fact, 40% of the population can be “zombified”.
For example, there are wasps that lay eggs in the belly of a spider, and then the larvae secrete substances that turn the spider into a zombie. Instead of weaving a web, he begins to weave a cocoon that protects these larvae.
Or in the Brazilian rainforest, there is a species of mushroom that controls ants. An ant infected with spores turns off its usual path and, "staggering", begins to look for a strictly established target - a plant 25 centimeters above the ant paths. The ant settles on its northwestern side and at noon digs its jaws into the central vein of the leaf - literally tightly, because it no longer opens its jaws and dies after six hours. And a few days later, the fruiting body of the fungus sprouts from his head, which thus reached the most convenient place for itself.
Photo: guardian.co.uk
Some worms are capable of the same "zombie control". One of the species for reproduction must certainly get into the intestines of the sheep. To do this, the worm also "drives away" the ant, already a different species, and, subjecting it to its will, makes it climb on a stalk of grass at sunset and firmly gain a foothold on it. If the sheep does not eat a blade of grass during the night, the ant descends so that the sun does not burn it or the parasite, and at sunset it again climbs to the top of the blade of grass.
Scientists are just beginning to comprehend how these parasites affect other organisms. For example, an entomologist at the University of Pennsylvania, Professor David Hughes, discovered that one of the substances produced by a fungus that zombies ants can destroy mitochondria - a unique source of cell energy. In other words, the infected ant is, as it were, “cut off from electricity” immediately after it clenches its jaws on the leaf, and it is no longer able to unclench them, although it does not die immediately.
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Professor Joan Webster, a parasitologist and epidemiologist at Imperial College London, explains that many parasites like to colonize directly in the brain, because only there they are fully protected from the host's immune system. Moreover, there they get access to the "central control panel" - a real paradise for the invader.
Scientists say that a person, too, may well turn out to be such an “ant” for some parasites, which cannot but raise the question - are we responsible for our behavior or is someone controlling us? For example, there is a completely "human" disease - toxoplasmosis. It is caused by Toxoplasma, a parasitic protozoan, the owners of which are representatives of the feline family. Accordingly, they can "inhabit" and domestic cats.
Photo: pathology.washington.edu
Toxoplasma is capable of multiplying only in the body of a cat, so that, having hit, for example, a mouse or a rat, these protozoa create conditions under which they can be eaten most quickly. So, infected rodents cease to be afraid of cats and even look for places where the cat has left its scent. Unlike infected rats, a person with toxoplasmosis is unlikely to be attracted to the smell of cat urine, but the disease manifests itself in another way. A person can lose their sense of danger and even become suicidal.
Research from Stanford University in California has shown that Toxoplasma parasitizes areas of the brain that are responsible for fear and pleasure. That is, fear is dulled - in rodents and humans, and in mice and rats, in addition, there is a substitution in the "pleasure center": instead of running to the smell of their own females, they run to the smell of a cat. Most recent studies have shown that Toxoplasma DNA contains two genes that "encourage" the release of dopamine, which is called the "pleasure hormone."
However, if we talk about people, then there is a much more widespread "zombie parasite" - this is the most common influenza virus. Binghamton University (New York), for the sake of experiment, vaccinated 36 of its employees and found out that people who, before vaccination, led the most ordinary lifestyle and moved in a certain circle of acquaintances, suddenly felt the need to visit bars and parties - that is, crowded places where the flu virus is the easiest to spread.
Someone such stories may scare or at least unnerve, but scientists reassure: such tests are very useful to understand as much as possible about infections and parasites, the publication concludes. Besides, this knowledge is indispensable in the development of neurotropic drugs, which, contrary to popular movie plots, can even cure zombies.