Parasites capable of behavioural manipulation provide a direct window into the molecular basis of behaviour by altering physiological systems in their hosts to generate behaviours that align with their life-cycle. Identifying these manipulation factors, via associating gene expression shifts in the parasite with behavioural changes in the host and following their effects will provide researchers with a bottom-up approach to unraveling the mechanisms of behavioural manipulation and by extension behaviour itself.īehaviour, as a physical concept, presents an incredibly complex challenge to researchers looking to understand its inner workings. By contrasting correlative mechanistic evidence for host manipulation against rare cases of causative evidence and drawing from the advanced understanding of physiological systems from other disciplines it is clear we are often skipping over a crucial step in host-manipulation: the production, potential storage, and release of molecules (manipulation factors) that must create the observed physiological changes in hosts if they are adaptive.
This has left researchers unable to empirically distinguish/identify adaptive physiological changes enforced by the parasites from pathological side effects of infection, resulting in scientists relying on narratives to explain results, rather than empirical evidence. A vast majority of the published literature investigating the mechanistic basis underlying behavioural manipulation fails to connect the establishment of the parasite with the reported physiological changes in its host. However, progress appears to falter when researchers ask how parasites manipulate behaviour, rather than why. As a result, the recently established field of ‘host manipulation’ has seen rapid expansion over the past few decades with public and scientific interest steadily increasing. The observation that certain species of parasite may adaptively manipulate its host behaviour is a fascinating phenomenon.
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