The stupidity virus

[pendell]

Explains a lot , doesn't it (http://www.independent.co.uk/news/science/virus-that-makes-humans-more-stupid-discovered-9849920.html).



The algae virus, never before observed in healthy people, was found to affect cognitive functions including visual processing and spatial awareness.

Scientists at Johns Hopkins Medical School and the University of Nebraska stumbled upon the discovery when they were undertaking an unrelated study into throat microbes.

...

Dr Robert Yolken, a virologist who led the original study, said: “This is a striking example showing that the ‘innocuous’ microorganisms we carry can affect behaviour and cognition. Many physiological differences between person A and person B are encoded in the set of genes each inherits from parents, yet some of these differences are fuelled by the various microorganisms we harbour and the way they interact with our genes.”

Of the 90 participants in the study, 40 tested positive for the algae virus. Those who tested positive performed worse on tests designed to measure the speed and accuracy of visual processing. They also achieved lower scores in tasks designed to measure attention.



So that explains it. I wonder if I can convince that I need to telecommute in order to avoid catching the virus ? :)

Respectfully,

Brian P.

[Jeff the Green]

Yeah, I don't believe it. While it's not exactly an extraordinary claim, it is weird and so requires a higher standard of evidence than I'm seeing in the news report.

Tonight, if I can get the paper (or some kind soul with a PNAS subscription/university affiliation could get me a copy) I'll do a rundown of it. I'm not a virologist, but I know a bit (particularly a very relevant bit about contaminated samples) and it looks like some of the problem is statistical or related to genetics, two subjects I do know a fair amount about.

Edit: Yeah, I can't find a copy yet. I did find this (http://www.forbes.com/sites/fayeflam/2014/11/11/why-you-neednt-worry-about-catching-the-dreaded-stupidity-virus/). I can't verify anything in that, but the criticisms are potentially valid. Contamination is an enormous problem when working with DNA. (It's why when we're working with ancient DNA it's sequenced in labs that have never had DNA from related species, which made sequencing the neanderthal genomes enormously impressive.) Jumping hosts like that is really bizarre. And PNAS has published some monumentally stupid papers over the years, like one arguing that butterflies arose from a cross between an insect and a velvet worm.

[aspi]

Yeah, I don't believe it. While it's not exactly an extraordinary claim, it is weird and so requires a higher standard of evidence than I'm seeing in the news report.
Not exactly my area of expertise, but how is this weird? The common cold is a virus and I know for a fact that I am more stupid and perform worse whenever I catch one. It's not hard for me to imagine a virus that's better adapted to us (and thus does not cause any strong symptoms) but has an adverse effect on our performance? After all, the theory that we're strongly influenced by the microorganisms in and on us isn't entirely new.

[Jeff the Green]

Not exactly my area of expertise, but how is this weird? The common cold is a virus and I know for a fact that I am more stupid and perform worse whenever I catch one. It's not hard for me to imagine a virus that's better adapted to us (and thus does not cause any strong symptoms) but has an adverse effect on our performance? After all, the theory that we're strongly influenced by the microorganisms in and on us isn't entirely new.

Well, first, it seems that the authors don't claim it produces symptoms that would cause mental fog (like fatigue or pain) but rather that it's a specific effect.

That's not the weird part, though. After all, there are definitely parasites that change host behavior and we almost certainly harbor a number of them. (Toxoplasma gondii is a leading candidate.) The weird part is that it jumped from green algae to humans. While I imagine this has probably happened at some point, it's really improbable. Viruses typically have trouble jumping species (c.f. Ebola, SARS, swine flu, MERS, hanta virus, all viruses that are endemic in their normal hosts—which are closely related to us—but haven't been able to establish the foothold their method of infection would suggest), let alone kingdoms. It's not quite as bad as if it infected one of the groups that have a different genetic code from us, but the cellular machinery is so different there is a marathon's-worth of hurdles the height of the Burj al Khalifa.

[aspi]

Thanks. With that explanation in mind I understand how it's an odd claim.

I'd also never realized that PNAS wasn't open access until 6 months after publication... considering their publication fee that's quite embarassing :smallsigh:

[Jeff the Green]

Yeah, it being in PNAS is another part of why I'm skeptical. They have a special method of submission called "contributed papers", of which this appears to be one, where a member of the NAS can choose all the reviewers, which is basically the opposite of how peer review should work. It's not as bad as it used to be when an NAS member could "communicate" the paper of another. This led to them publishing an infamous article claiming that the larval stage of butterflies is actually the result of a hybridization with the velvet worm. This is so monumentally stupid* that it caused them to eliminate the communicated paper track, but they left in the old-boys club.

*This, incidentally, is why I laugh when someone says something laudatory about Lynn Margulis. She had one (very) good idea—endosymbiosis as the origin of plastids and mitochondria—and then spent the rest of her career promoting junk science. She's the one who communicated the velvet worm/butterfly paper. She also came to my college when I was a freshman to give a (completely inane) talk and then was pretty much deflated by a single question I asked. I say this not as a paean to my intelligence—it was an obvious question, "if all evolution actually comes from endosymbiosis and horizontal gene transfer, where do entirely novel genes come from" and the fact that it was me that asked it instead of another student is due to my egotism rather than that my brilliance—but to demonstrate how much of a crank she was.