
“Zombie cicadas” infected with mind-controlling fungus return to West Virginia - wglb
https://www.cbsnews.com/news/zombie-cicadas-infected-mind-controlling-fungus-west-virginia/
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tomasreimers
The mind-controlling--probably a better phrase for them is "behavior
altering"\--class of parasites are fascinating from an academic sense... and
nightmare fuel from a day-to-day sense. Two additional cases which I remember
studying in school are:

(1) A parasitic worm which causes snails to climb to clearly visible positions
so that birds can eat them. These snails are usually avoidant of those
positions, and so this is clear behavior alteration.
([https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fkiL-v4X8w8](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fkiL-v4X8w8))

(2) A parasitic fungus which takes over ants, causing them to climb up high
and then bite (!!! this means it can affect specific muscle movements) into a
plant, before bursting from the body and spreading spores
([https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vijGdWn5-h8](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vijGdWn5-h8),
apologies for the mildly dramatic nat-geo video)

And for a good piece of sci-fi on the first-person experience of seeing others
rapidly/inexplicably change behavior, check out [The Screwfly
Solution]([https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Screwfly_Solution](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Screwfly_Solution)).
(It's a good read intended as commentary on patriarchy, and it also uses a
behavior altering piece of biology as a key plot device.)

There is a part of me that wonders if there are things
(viruses/bacteria/funguses) which effect human behavior. And if in 100/1000s
of years into the future we'll look back and realize that some subset of
maladaptive personality traits and/or mood disorders aren't something that
simply "happen" to someone, but are instead explained by biology/chemistry we
didn't have a good understanding of. The same way we now look at ancient Rome
and say "yeah, their use of lead pipes definitely had some effect on their
psychology".

Then again, there is something deeply human to say "nah, we are fully in
control of our psychology. These things only happen in simpler animals, and
our more-complicated biology means this could NEVER happen to us".

~~~
dweekly
It's not a theoretical concern. Take toxoplasmosis, which affects nearly half
the human population and has measurable effects on human behavior.

[https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2526142/](https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2526142/)

~~~
tuesdayrain
Toxoplasmosis being commonly carried by cats is one of the main reasons I will
never own one. I am certain it's not a coincidence that cat scratches are
associated with depression.

[https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4700762/](https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4700762/)

~~~
Covzire
It's also extremely overblown. Even if a cat has toxoplasmosis, it's not
contagious unless the cat is very sick itself and even then only through its'
feces, which I suppose could get on a cat's claws, but for your normal healthy
indoor/outdoor cat it's a non-issue.

~~~
xkcd-sucks
Cat poops, cat buries poop with hind feet, cat gets picked up, cat hears a
scary noise and digs back claws into your chest shoulders and head as it
climbs over you to escape

~~~
cutemonster
indeed they do, and many many times over the years, if growing up with one

And they're fluffy and cute and a nice friend :-)

~~~
fartcannon
I mean, there is a sincere possibility that you only like cats because you're
infected by a mind control parasite.

For real! Isn't that terrifying?

~~~
dtakuma
Only if you are clinging to the illusion of self :)

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hirundo
Humans certainly get infected with mind-controlling memes. How sure are we
that there aren't fungal/bacterial/viral sources of change to human behavior?
Maybe an infection could make us more peaceful or warlike, authoritarian or
laissez-faire, pious or agnostic, obedient or obstinate. Political and
religious movements sure seem to spread like biological infections. I wonder
if there are epidemiological measures that could tell the difference. Velocity
of spread could be discriminator, but you'd have to test that on populations
that are culturally but not physically isolated and visa versa, which is a
tall order.

~~~
Johnjonjoan
Like toxaplasmosis? We don't really like entertaining these things because our
identities are very attatched to the idea of free will.

~~~
imtringued
There is no meaningful difference between a world with free will and a fully
deterministic world. You're still going to make the same decisions and live
the same life in either world.

If you get shot, you die, even with free will. If you lose your legs, you'll
be trapped in a wheelchair, even with free will. If you get infected by a
zombie disease, you'll become a zombie, even with free will.

Free will simply doesn't buy you anything. You can still keep your identity
without it.

~~~
Johnjonjoan
Without free will you've never made a decision. Try telling anyone they didn't
decide what they do or like or wear and you'll see that (for now) identity is
tightly tied to free will in most peoples minds.

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dsun179
Scrolljacking, history hacking, background ads play with sound. What a shit of
a website.

~~~
marmshallow
I agree it's a shit website, but I loaded it on Chrome with uBlock Origin and
I don't have scrolljacking (scrolling seems fine), history hacking (my back
button works as expected), and no background ads at all.

~~~
quicklime
Running this with stock standard Firefox (and its standard tracking
protections) and the site works well for me too.

The state of the web today reminds me a lot of the early '00s when popups were
everywhere, and the most popular browser didn't block them by default.
Browsing news sites with vanilla Chrome today is awful.

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tyingq
Similar parasitic fungus that "zombifies" ants:
[https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ophiocordyceps_unilateralis](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ophiocordyceps_unilateralis)

A similar storyline is also featured in the TV show Fortitude. The first two
seasons are on Amazon Prime, but I haven't been able to find the third season
in the US, despite it being a couple of years old now.

~~~
vore
What's really interesting about O. unilateralis is that it doesn't take over
the host's brain, and instead controls the muscles directly:
[https://www.nationalgeographic.com/animals/2019/04/cordyceps...](https://www.nationalgeographic.com/animals/2019/04/cordyceps-
zombie-fungus-takes-over-ants/)

    
    
      Using a type of fluorescent microscopy, researchers from Pennsylvania State University watched fungal colonization in ants from the gaster, the rear end of the abdomen, to the head—and found no trace of fungal cells in the brain. They coupled that information with computer algorithms to chart the movement of fungi as they formed a sort of tubular scaffolding within and around ants’ muscle bundles.
      
      This suggests the fungus casts its mind control through bioactive compounds that interfere with the ant’s nervous system and control hosts directly at the muscles, de Bekker says.

~~~
saberdancer
How would the fungus control the ant where he goes, attaching to a major vein
on the underside of a leaf seems to either imply that the ant (brain) is
affected to make the ant move to that location, or that fungus is capable of
interpreting environment which seems quite unlikely.

I find it far more likely that the full effect is quite complex, perhaps the
fungus is able to create chemical "urges" in the ant which force him to leave
the colony and go for undersides of the leaves, only to overwhelm the ant
completely by controlling the muscles directly once it is in position to lock
his mandibles on the leave until death.

~~~
vmception
Yeah I really wonder about the possibilities, like are there a bunch _more_
infected ants that never make it to the underside of the leaf or branch?

Or is this fungi and symbiotic relationship really that .... intelligent ...
in some capacity?

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mirimir
> But, there's no need to be concerned about being infected by the zombies.
> Unlike murder hornets or mosquitoes, these zombie cicadas are generally
> harmless to humans, researchers said.

I wonder if they're a workable source of psilocybin.

~~~
dillonmckay
Cicada tea or a pizza topping?

~~~
mirimir
I have eaten dried grasshoppers with beer. And actually, it's less gross than
pork rinds ;)

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totalZero
I feel kind of sad for these cicadas. Imagine spending 17 years preparing in
the darkness for your big cicada debut, only to have your body and behavior
taken over by a destructive fungus.

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odomojuli
Interesting. I wonder how the fungus adapted to target cicadas which famously
spawn only in prime years such as 17 or 19 to avoid overlap with their
predators.

~~~
monadic2
Choose the non-teleolgical version: what changes did the fungus or cicada
mutate that allowed this integration of lifecycles?

~~~
odomojuli
Good point. I guess you'd have to throw out the assumption they're not
vulnerable during that time since they spend the bulk of their lifespan in the
fungal domain: underground.

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distant_hat
I wonder if this is the reason why some mushrooms (which are fungi), such as
psylocybes, have such strong mental effects on humans. Shared common pathways
from hundreds of millenia old except that in us the effects are limited and
dont cause us to climb on a tree and get eaten by a leopard.

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dillonmckay
OK, two questions:

Can you make some kind of cicada tea with the psilocybin?

Could this have occurred in 1918 and caused human hallucinations because of
contamination?

