Serotonin – A link between disgust and immunity?

Rubio‐Godoy, Miguel; Aunger, Robert; Curtis, Val

doi:10.1016/j.mehy.2006.06.036

Cited by 42 publications

(36 citation statements)

References 32 publications

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“…Commonly, lawn avoidance is observed in the context of pathogenic species of bacteria, but avoidance behavior can also be observed by feeding C. elegans relatively non-pathogenic bacteria that are engineered to harbor plasmids that may be toxic to the host through feeding RNAi of essential genes [14], suggesting the sensing of cellular damage. The involvement of serotonin signaling in this process has been noted to be reminiscent of mammalian gastrointestinal responses to enteric pathogens, in which serotonin signaling may be involved in the activation of nausea responses [9,15]. Box 1.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Behavioral avoidance of pathogenic bacteria by Caenorhabditis elegans

Meisel

Kim

2014

Trends in Immunology

145

114

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Behavioral avoidance of pathogenic bacteria by Caenorhabditis elegans

Meisel

Kim

2014

Trends in Immunology

145

114

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“…This suggests that disgust propensity has long evolutionary origin with possible adaptive significance for animals including humans. Rubio-Godoy et al (2007) distinguish two stages of disgust: a priori disgust is the first stage which involves early detection of an infectious environmental threat. Examples include defensive behaviour such as avoiding slimy or dirty objects, keeping away from sites that pose health risks, etc.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

The association between disgust, danger and fear of macroparasites and human behaviour

Prokop

Fančovičová

2010

acta ethol

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Evolutionary explanations of disgust propensity propose that disgust is an adaptation which helps us to decrease the likelihood of being infected by pathogens. To test this hypothesis, we examined human fear, disgust and self-perceived danger as a response on colourful pictures of disease-relevant and disease-irrelevant invertebrates. Furthermore, we also examined a possible link between these variables and human anti-parasite behaviour. We found that participants clearly distinguished between disease-relevant and disease-irrelevant group of animals, and that females always scored higher than males. Moreover, there were associations between ratings of fear, disgust and danger and human anti-parasite behaviour. Our results support the hypothesis that human emotions and behaviours are shaped by natural selection.

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“…Several researchers propose that disgust may be an adaptive strategy to decrease the likelihood of being infected by pathogens (Curtis et al 2004;Rubio-Godoy et al 2007). Empirical evidence reveals that both humans and nonhuman animals show a disgust reaction and behavioural rejection toward objects (or individuals) that are potentially contaminated by parasites (Goodall 1986;Kiesecker et al 1999;Curtis et al 2004).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Health and the avoidance of macroparasites: a preliminary cross-cultural study

Prokop

Uşak

Fančovičová

2009

J Ethol

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Some evolutionary explanations of cross-cultural differences propose that human personality is caused by pathogen stress. Both xenophobia and ethnocentrism evolved under conditions with high parasite prevalence. Further, inter-individual variation in disgust or fear of parasites is expected to be influenced by human health, where healthy people should express lower disgust sensitivity to parasites. We examined inter-individual variation of children's fear, disgust and self-perceived danger between two distinct cultures differing in overall pathogen prevalence. We found that children were able to distinguish between disease-relevant and disease-irrelevant groups of invertebrates and that children in regions with high pathogen prevalence expressed greater fear, disgust and selfperceived danger of all animals, irrespective of disease threat. After controlling for confounding factors, better health of children was associated with lower perceived danger of disease-relevant animals. Gender differences were found only in conditions with low pathogen stress. Our results support the idea that cross-cultural differences in human perception of animals are mediated by pathogen threat. Further research is necessary to investigate causal relationship between human health and avoidance of potentially hazardous animals.

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Serotonin – A link between disgust and immunity?

Cited by 42 publications

References 32 publications

Behavioral avoidance of pathogenic bacteria by Caenorhabditis elegans

Behavioral avoidance of pathogenic bacteria by Caenorhabditis elegans

The association between disgust, danger and fear of macroparasites and human behaviour

Health and the avoidance of macroparasites: a preliminary cross-cultural study

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