Several real-life pathogens can change a host’s behavior against their will. Here’s what we know about these zombie-like infections. The post Can Our Brains Be Taken Over? first appeared on Quanta Magazine
In The Last of Us, a video game series and recent television show, fungal pathogens are to blame for a zombie-like plague. Once infected, humans lose control over their bodies and become increasingly aggressive, seeking to infect others through violence. It’s a familiar trope: The same fungus, Ophiocordyceps, torments humanity in the movie The Girl With All the Gifts, while viruses do the work in…