How Toxoplasmosis affects Rh(D)negative and Rh(D)positive individuals differently

More studies are coming, but we already have discovered a few major differences in terms of how being infected with Toxoplasma gondii appears to have different effects on Rh(D)negative and Rh(D)positive individuals.

While Rh(D)negative people are showing increase of IQ scores when infected, Rh(D)positive people are showing a decrease in this study.

Psychomotor skills however appear to be strongly affected in Rh(D)negatives over Rh(D)positives infected. This discovery had been accidental when realizing large numbers of accidents unexplained otherwise. A new study also claims that Toxoplasmosis changes personalities and contributes to entrepreneurial skills:

According to the study, being infected by the organism, Toxoplasma gondii, may give an advantage to entrepreneurs and managers. The protozoan parasite, which is spread by cats, is known to invade the brain and may cause personality changes associated with risk-taking.

Rh factor in above study was not provided.

Disciplines such as business and economics often rely on the assumption of rationality when explaining complex human behaviours. However, growing evidence suggests that behaviour may concurrently be influenced by infectious microorganisms. The protozoan Toxoplasma gondii infects an estimated 2 billion people worldwide and has been linked to behavioural alterations in humans and other vertebrates. Here we integrate primary data from college students and business professionals with national-level information on cultural attitudes towards business to test the hypothesis that T. gondii infection influences individual- as well as societal-scale entrepreneurship activities. Using a saliva-based assay, we found that students (n = 1495) who tested IgG positive for T. gondii exposure were 1.4× more likely to major in business and 1.7× more likely to have an emphasis in ‘management and entrepreneurship’ over other business-related emphases. Among professionals attending entrepreneurship events, T. gondii-positive individuals were 1.8× more likely to have started their own business compared with other attendees (n = 197). Finally, after synthesizing and combining country-level databases on T. gondii infection from the past 25 years with the Global Entrepreneurship Monitor of entrepreneurial activity, we found that infection prevalence was a consistent, positive predictor of entrepreneurial activity and intentions at the national scale, regardless of whether previously identified economic covariates were included. Nations with higher infection also had a lower fraction of respondents citing ‘fear of failure’ in inhibiting new business ventures. While correlational, these results highlight the linkage between parasitic infection and complex human behaviours, including those relevant to business, entrepreneurship and economic productivity.

The study:
Risky business: linking Toxoplasma gondii infection and entrepreneurship behaviours across individuals and countries.

This could also be due to impulsive behavior, which seems to increase due to Toxoplasmosis. It carries positive and negative results.

Two different studies by Kor Yereli and colleagues and Jaroslav Fleg and his colleagues indicate that Toxoplasma gondiiinfection can increase the probability of being involved in traffic accidents, as infected people tend to take more risks on the road. More recently, Thomas Cook and his colleagues linked aggression and impulsivity with latent chronic Toxoplasma gondii infection. These manifested in an increased risk of suicidal behavior, impulsivity in younger men and aggressive behavior in women. However, we need to be cautious when linking latent chronic infection and human behavioral changes, especially from just one or two studies. Karen Sugden and her colleagues found that there is little evidence to link infection with behavioral impairments such as suicide and schizophrenia.

Source:


Mind altering microbes: can Toxoplasma gondii infection increase entrepreneurship?

The stress coping hypothesis suggests that such behavioral effects of toxoplasmosis are side effects of chronic stress caused by lifelong parasitosis and associated health disorders. Several studies have searched for, and typically found, indices of impaired health in infected subjects.

In many individuals, stress contributes to heightened skills and senses while in others, a shutdown of senses and skills takes place. More information on all studies not indicating rh factor is needed in order to determine significance specifically for Rh(D)negative individuals.