Scientists Discover a Virus That Changes the Brain To "Make Humans More Stupid"

concertina226 writes that researchers have found a virus that appears to reduce people’s thinking power and attention span. "Scientists at the Johns Hopkins Medical School and the University of Nebraska have discovered an algae virus that makes us more stupid by infecting our brains. The researchers were conducting a completely unrelated study into throat microbes when they realized that DNA in the throats of healthy people matched the DNA of a chlorovirus virus known as ATCV-1. ATCV-1 is a virus that infects the green algae found in freshwater lakes and ponds. It had previously been thought to be non-infectious to humans, but the scientists found that it actually affects cognitive functions in the brain by shortening attention span and causing a decrease in spatial awareness. For the first time ever, the researchers proved that microorganisms have the ability to trigger delicate physiological changes to the human body, without launching a full-blown attack on the human immune system."

Comments

Virus Name

[Anonymous Coward]

Fox News

Re:Virus Name

[The Ickle Jones]

Can we just agree that all the news stations are incredibly retarded?

Re:Virus Name

[Anonymous Coward]

The Palin Syndrome

a.k.a "The Palindrome" :)

Re:Virus Name

[The Ickle Jones]

Why isn't it true? From what I've seen, they all offer their own flavor of propaganda, fluff pieces, and a pro-mass-surveillance (though they occasionally put on someone who is slightly opposed to it) agenda.

Re:Virus Name

[dywolf]

Which one peddles lies about death panels, calls scientists liars, has a psychatrist who diagnoses the President on air, and says slavery and jim crow werent so bad?

Re:Virus Name

[PraiseBob]

People who watch no news of any kind, are more informed about current events than viewers of Fox News. For sure you can expect certain kinds of distortion for left and right wing biases from every station, but Fox News takes viewers several steps beyond political slant, to full on fabrications that suit their storyline.

Re:Virus Name

[sudon't]

It's well known that Fox is the worst source of TV news in the US, but the others aren't great either. Even with NPR, which always tops the survey you're thinking of, (in terms of listeners being better informed), you still have to be able to read between the lines a bit. There's also a bit of self-selection going on in that NPR listeners tend to already be better educated than consumers of television news. And there's a lot of news that even NPR doesn't cover - although by carrying the BBC, some of those gaps are filled in. But educated people are more likely to get their news from many sources.

People who get all their news from television are not going to be well-informed, whatever the station. Fox is a different animal altogether.

First time?

[K. S. Kyosuke]

For the first time ever, the researchers proved that microorganisms have the ability to trigger delicate physiological changes to the human body, without launching a full-blown attack on the human immune system.

The first? What about Toxoplasma gondii ?

Re:First time?

[K. S. Kyosuke]

Cat ownership is actually just a minor factor - the feces of an infected cat are infectious only after a certain period of time, and cleaning the litter once a day removes the cysts before they get any chance to infect anyone. Furthermore, there's only a limited period during which a cat can excrete infectious feces, only a few weeks of its entire life. So the combined probability of your cat getting infected, excreting infectious feces, those feces staying in the litter, and you getting infected is really, really small.

Anyway, I was referring to mental processes being altered by microorganisms that don't get significant immune response, which is what this discovery seems to be about. If you read it again, it wasn't specifically about people being "made stupid".

Re:First time?

[Will.Woodhull]

That doesn't explain the high prevalence of toxo antibodies in some human populations. CDC estimates about 20% of the USA population has been affected by toxo at some time in their life. Toxo is a very prevalent parasite, suggesting that its modes of transmission are a lot more effective than parent post implies.

There is anecdotal evidence that women who choose to live with multiple cats are often polyamorous or blatantly promiscuous, take risks with social norms that lead to frequent loss of jobs, and are exceptionally tolerant of the stench of cat piss. Rats that have been infected with toxo have been shown to become more daring than the average rat, and to be attracted to the odor of cat piss.

Real article is here

[__aaltlg1547]

http://www.pnas.org/content/ea...

It explains that they measured the cognitive differences between infected and non-infected people, and how, which wasn't addressed in the clickbait summary.

Re:Real article is here

[RDW]

Rather an odd study. Viral DNA apparently present in nearly half the subjects. They went straight to a mouse model before attempting to confirm the (small) effect in a larger, independent human cohort. No evidence that the virus actually infects mammalian cells, which would be an extremely unusual host range (the only precedent of anything similar they could find to cite is in an obscure Ukrainian journal). I'd say 'more research is needed', but maybe that's just the virus talking.

So...

[king neckbeard]

It looks like stupidity may be contagious after all.

Yesterday

[Rashdot]

Yesterday I went swimming in a pond but now I can't fin.. Oh look, a tweet.

Re: All well and good, but...

[gurps_npc]

Where exactly does the water for the Capital building (Congress) come from? Has anyone checked into this?