Affects on Behavior

An example of a microscopically small organism taking over the behavior of a host: the rabies virus. After a bite from mammal to another, this tiny bullet shaped virus climbs its way up the nerves and into the temporal lobe of the brain. There it ingratiates itself into the local neurons, and by changing the local patterns of activity it induces the infect host to aggression, rage, and a propensity to bite. The virus also moves into the salivary glands, and it this way it is passed on through the bite to the next host. By steering the behavior of the host, the virus, a measly seventy-five billionths of a meter in diameter, survives by commandeering the massive body of the host twenty-five million times larger than it. The lesson is that invisibly small changes inside the brain can cause massive changes to behavior. Our choices are inseparably married to the tiniest details of our machinery.