The effect of congenital Toxoplasma infection on mouse activity and relative preference for exposed areas over a series of trials

The Effect of Toxoplasma gondii on Animal Behavior: Playing Cat and Mouse

“…A series of studies thus investigated the potential effect of postnatal and congenital toxoplasmosis on laboratory mouse activity and exploratory behavior by recording each individual's entry into marked squares on a cage floor, Y-shaped maze and/or on running wheels. [14][15][16][17] Infected mice were found to be more active than their uninfected counterparts. Likewise, infected mice showed a preference for more exposed or novel areas of apparatus and spent significantly less time grooming, a typical ''displacement activity,'' before investigating such novel areas than did their uninfected counterparts.…”

Toxoplasma gondiiinfection, from predation to schizophrenia: can animal behaviour help us understand human behaviour?

“…Furthermore, it must be emphasized that rats and mice are not the same in terms of their susceptibility, behaviour, morbidity and overall response to T. gondii. For instance, whilst some T. gondii-altered behavioural traits, such as increased activity levels (Hay et al, 1984;Webster, 1994;Webster, 2001), appear to be similar in rats and mice, other behavioural traits appear to show contrasting results. One example is the observed decreased ability of T. gondii-infected hosts to recognize and/or respond to novel stimuli; this can result in either a decrease of neophobia in neophobic hosts such as rats or an increase of neophobia in neophilic hosts such as mice or indeed humans (Hodková et al, 2007).…”

“…Laboratory and/or experimentally controlled naturalistic studies on rats and mice have also demonstrated that T. gondii infection is associated with a range of subtle behavioural alterations, many of which would facilitate parasite transmission from the infected intermediate host to the feline definitive host [detailed reviews of which may be found elsewhere (Webster, 2001;Webster, 2007)]. For example, T. gondii-infected rodents exhibit an increase in activity and a decrease in predator vigilance behavioural traits (Berdoy et al, 1995;Hay et al, 1983;Hay et al, 1984;Hutchison et al, 1980a;Hutchison et al, 1980b;Lamberton et al, 2008;Webster, 1994;Webster, 2001;Webster, 2007;Webster et al, 1994;Webster et al, 2006). Moreover, whilst uninfected rats show a strong innate aversion to predator odour, T. gondii infection appears to subtly alter the rats' cognitive perception of cat predation risk, turning their innate aversion into a 'suicidal' 'fatal feline attraction' (Berdoy et al, 2000;Vyas et al, 2007c;Webster et al, 2006).…”

Neuropsychiatric Disease and <i>Toxoplasma gondii</i> Infection

“…A number of studies have demonstrated the ability of the parasite to manipulate the behaviour of rodents in relation to predator-prey interactions [59,60,[62][63][64][65][66][67][68][69][70] . Early studies examined the ability of T. gondii infection to affect the behaviour of laboratory mice [62][63][64][65][66] .…”