Robert Sapolsky explains the lifecycle and behaviour controlling feature of Toxoplasma — a protozoan which can only reproduce sexually in the gut of a cat. It comes out in the cat faeces, the faeces get eaten by rodents, then to get back in the cat, it enters the brain and creates dopamine — the neurotransmitter in the brain that’s all about reward and anticipation of reward — to attract the rat to the cat.
The rat could, presumably, be human and have a controlling influence on the brain …
On a certain level, this is a protozoan parasite that knows more about the neurobiology of anxiety and fear than 25,000 neuroscientists standing on each other’s shoulders, and this is not a rare pattern.
Eeek