How microbes, viruses and genes take over our bodies and control our minds

2024 Author: Malcolm Clapton | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 03:44

If suddenly you were always afraid that aliens would kidnap you or take over your mind, we have news for you. Your brain is already controlled by foreign organisms that change behavior, mood, and emotions.

The statement that the mind and brain function as a single system, without internal contradictions or disharmony, should be considered obsolete. Numerous studies prove that it would be very naive to believe that at the most basic, biological level, we are a single genetic construct.

The mental conflicts that are triggered by imprinted genes that express the conflicting biological interests of our parents are something we face every day. In addition, our emotions and behavior are controlled not only by genes, but also by foreign microbes, viruses and other invaders.

This is evidenced by the most recent scientific works. For example, Peter Kramer and Paola Bressan study results on genomic imprinting and its effect on the human brain.

You may not be aware of this, but emotions, behavior and mental health are influenced by a large number of entities that live in our bodies and pursue interests that often do not coincide with our own. These can be microbes, foreign human cells, viruses, or imprinted genes controlled by virus-like elements.

The authors of the work managed to show: we are not unitary individuals who completely control ourselves, but rather superorganisms, collections of human and non-human elements that are integrated into each other and, being in an incessant struggle, determine who we are.

How it works? Take Toxoplasma gondii, for example. This parasite originally developed in cats and rodents, but now it infects 10 to 70% of people, depending on age.

The parasite can complete the sexual part of its life cycle only when it is inside the cat's body. Therefore, when Toxoplasma is in a rodent, it changes its behavior, destroying the instinctive fear of cats. The rodent becomes lethargic, weak and does not run away from the predator. The cat easily catches the mouse and eats it, moving the parasite inside its body.

It is said that the love of felines in humans is also partly due to Toxoplasma infection. This phenomenon is also known as feline syndrome.

The limbic lobe of the brain is responsible for fear. The limbic system in mice develops according to the genetic material of the father, not the mother. The same is most likely true for humans. According to the work of Cramer and Bressan, Toxoplasma can cause schizophrenia or other mental illnesses in a person.

The fact is that the seizure or attack of the paternal genes leads to a mental imbalance. Perhaps Toxoplasma interacts with us, as a result of which the immune system triggers a certain reaction, during which the amino acid tryptophan is destroyed. This leads to the development of schizophrenia.

Neurochemical changes resulting from the breakdown of tryptophan have been found in the brains of schizophrenic patients. They are associated with impairments in perception, memory, spatial orientation and learning ability.

Bacteria also affect us in the same way. The bacteria found in the gastrointestinal tract contain a hundred times more genes than the human body. This bacterial colonization irreversibly affects our behavior and changes neural connections in certain parts of the brain. Animal studies support this fact.

In humans, bacteria can cause gastrointestinal inflammation, which is also involved in the development of schizophrenia, mood disorders, anxiety and depression.

Therefore, Kramer and Bressan point out that the administration of probiotics (bifidobacteria and lactobacilli) can have a therapeutic effect on a person's mental health.

The exploitation of humans by viruses is especially clearly demonstrated by the example of cytomegalovirus. In the United States, between 1988 and 1994, about 60% of people over the age of six and over 90% of people over the age of 80 were infected with the virus. The infection was usually benign. But some patients with a particular gene variant have a fivefold increase in risk of schizophrenia due to maternal cytomegalovirus infection. As with Toxoplasma, cytomegalovirus attacks the body's limbic system.

Retroviruses, on the other hand, copy DNA into our genome. The DNA of endogenous human retroviruses occupies at least 8% of our genome. Another 37% is occupied by the so-called jumping genes, which only resemble retroviruses or are of viral origin. Because of this, harmful viral elements that remained inactive can be awakened by various pathogens. For example, the flu or cold can activate a number of endogenous retroviral elements, which can lead to neuroinflammation or myelin degeneration, as well as become part of the development of bipolar disorder or schizophrenia.

But the "invaders" do not have to be alien. They can also be of human origin.

Recently, researchers have found more and more evidence in favor of the assumption that our brains and behavior are constantly modified due to the invasion of certain cells, for example from a stranger. The most likely period of infiltration is the embryo stage. Then the mother or the fetal twin "infects" us.

Alien cells enter our body, multiply and form large areas inside the body or brain. Hence, their integration can be called exquisite: they literally become part of the host's organism.

Thus, the authors discuss the phenomenon of chimerism, in which genetically different cells coexist in one organism. Real life examples show that the integration of fetal cells into the mother's and / or twin's brain has a huge impact on the development of thinking and behavior. Kramer and Bressan say that the study of chimerism and the "capture" of the body by foreign cells has practical applications. We are talking about the development of methods for the treatment of human mental illness.

Psychotherapists, for example, could benefit from these scientific developments by getting answers to questions not only about the psyche, but also about what the human body is in general. Kramer and Bressan write:

It looks like the time has come to change the very concept of a person. We must understand that a person is not an individual.