bogleech:

space-mouse:

gemcuttlefish:

aeondeug:

bogleech:

Science wasn’t actually certain how fungi like cordyceps “hijacked” their host’s behavior, and we always kind of assumed it was causing some simplistic damage to the brain.

As it turns out, it works much more elaborately and much MORE like the dramatized sci-fi horror parasites constantly inspired by it.

These fungi integrate themselves on the cellular level with the host’s tissues, actually seem to send signals to the host’s muscles and even alter the host’s genes with their own.

All the while, THE BRAIN ISN’T INVADED AT ALL.

These fungi, all along, have been converting their hosts into animal-fungal hybrids they control while the host’s brain and consciousness remain helplessly alive and largely unaltered.

I love knowing how my deepest, darkest horrors have been proven a reality.

INCREDIBLE

ok i keep seeing this post on my dash and i have to wonder, what are we referring to when we talk about the brain of an ant?

ants are tiny. the don’t have spinal chords. the structure of their brains has gotta be pretty alien to our own. i can’t claim that ants definitely aren’t conscious just because they’re not built like us, but i think it’s safe to say that an ant experiences this takeover very differently from how a human would. and i’m curious about the specifics of that difference.

As animals, insect brains actually do work exactly like ours, with neurons delivering electrical pulses and neurotransmitters to one another.

It’s been demonstrated that insects as tiny as fruit flies make conscious decisions, which we first figured out by suspending them in tiny sensory deprivation chambers. Had they lacked any sentience they would have behaved on a mindless loop or just shut down like truly “brainless” organisms do, but instead, they behaved unpredictably, trying different actions to escape the predicament.

Later experiments presented fruit flies with confusing options and taught them patterns in mate choice to back up that they think before they act.

It’s actually been through the study of insect brains that we’re starting to confirm brain size is not linked to mental capacity; it’s the complexity of the neural paths that determine how much information can be processed and stores, and insect brains seem to be set up for extremely high efficiency, capable of using the same cells for different tasks at different times whereas our brains devote whole sections to only the same tasks at all times.

It’s like this computer:

Vs. this computer:

http://www.nbcnews.com/id/33974286/ns/technology_and_science-science/t/tiny-insect-brains-can-solve-big-problems/