Little things, like taking a shortcut through the park on your way to work each day can make a big difference

to your mental health. Find your little big thing

little big thing at every mind matters. This is scientific Americans 60 second science. I'm Karen Hopkins.

Parasites live on or even inside another organism.

And some can even change the behavior of their host

to boost the odds of their transmission.

Take the single cell toxoplasma Gandhi.

Myse infected with this bug appear to become attracted to the smell of cat pee,

an odor that uninfected mice smartly avoid.

The infection thus raises the chances that a mouse will wind up in a cat's mouth.

Obviously bad news for the mouse, but good news for the parasite, which needs a kitty to complete its life cycle

and spread to additional hosts.

Devious indeed, but it turns out this cunning scheme may be less precisely targeted than it initially

appears.

Because a new study finds that toxoplasma doesn't specifically eliminate a mouse's natural aversion to cats.

Rather, the infection makes them generally less anxious and more adventurous, which makes them more curious about cats and pretty much everything else.

The work appears in the journal, Cell reports.

The story about Toxoplasma Gandhi manipulating the behavior of its host is simply fascinating.

Biologist Yvonne Rodriguez of the University of Geneva, one of the study senior authors.

It was particularly intriguing for us to understand how the parasite achieves a specific alteration of the neural circuits involved in the response towards feline predators,

something that has never been elucidated. So Rodriguez and his colleague set out to determine

the molecular mechanisms that underlie this

...