Among professionals at entrepreneurship events, those who had started their own business were more likely to be Toxoplasmosis gondii positive

Toxoplasmosis: Recent Advances in Understanding the Link Between Infection and Host Behavior. Stefanie K. Johnson1 and Pieter T.J. Johnson. Annual Review of Animal Biosciences, Vol. 9:249-264 (February 2021). https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev-animal-081720-111125

Abstract: Humans, wildlife, and domestic animals are intimately linked through shared infections. Many parasites and pathogens use multiple host species, either opportunistically or sequentially, such that managing disease risk frequently requires a broader understanding of the ecological community. The coccidian protozoan Toxoplasma gondii infects more than one hundred species of vertebrates, ranging from bats to beluga whales. In humans, acute toxoplasmosis can have serious health consequences for immunocompromised individuals. Even amongst asymptomatic patients, however, toxoplasmosis has been linked to a range of behavioral alterations and conditions, such as changes in risk tolerance, neuroticism, mental illness, suicide, and accident proneness. Whether such links are causal or simply correlational has been the subject of intense study and debate; from an evolutionary standpoint, selection may favor parasite-induced alterations in host behavior that increase the likelihood a host is consumed by the definitive host—in this case a domestic or wild felid. Here, we examine current evidence for parasite-induced manipulations of host behavior, in both humans and other animals. We critically evaluate proposed mechanisms through which infection might influence host behavior, which range from inflammation in the brain to changes in hormones or neurotransmitters. Considering estimates that T. gondii may infect up to one-third of the global human population, we conclude by examining the implications of these changes for human behavior, individual fitness, and emergent cultural properties.

Keywords: Toxoplasma gondii , toxoplasmosis, parasite, behavior manipulation