Symptoms / Timeline
Week 1 (Days 1 – 7)
NO symptoms
Week 2 (Days 8 – 14)
Flu-like cold that get worse as the week continues
Body aches
Coughing
Fever
Headache
Nausea
Numbness and tingling around body
Sneezing
Sore throat
Week 3/Day 8 of infection (Day 15)
Hour 1-2
Lose coordination and strength to walk or crawl
Easily irritable and aggressive, but lack strength to attack or cause harm
May panic or be paranoid
Delirium
Becomes difficult to
Think
Remember
Sleep
Pay attention
Hour 3-4
Physical coordination failure moves to arms and hands
Continued delirium
Hallucinations
Confusion
Speech becomes slurred and unable to be understood
Unable to move
Hours 5-6
All ability to rationalize deteriorates completely
Stares as walls or things for prolonged periods without actual focus
Does not respond to stimuli (pain, hot, cold)
Body is numb
Fall into coma
After coma (5min – 1 hour)
Victim rouses out of sleep and violently attacks anything it perceives as food
Symptoms / Timeline: Immune
Week 1 (Days 1-7)
NO symptoms
Week 2 (Days 8 – 12)
Flu-like cold that get worse as the week continues
Body aches
Coughing
Fever
Headache
Nausea
Numbness and tingling around body
Sneezing
Sore throat
Week 2: (Day 13)
Overwhelmed by an urge to sleep
Will respond and awaken to stimuli like pain, but will immediately go back to sleep
Is nearly impossible to rouse but not mimicking coma
Will sleep a full 12-24 hours
Week 2: (Day 14 – 15)
Wake up from exhausted state
Feeling better
Fever broken
Some flu symptoms still present
Spend at least 3 days recovering while symptoms clear up
How is the virus spread?
Airborne
Someone infected sneezes or coughs on you and body fluid is absorbed into the body somehow
Contagious Body Fluids/Blood
Amniotic fluid
Body fluid that is visibly contaminated with blood.
Blood
Cerebrospinal fluid
Peritoneal fluid
Pleural fluid
Saliva (in dental procedures), and
Semen
Synovial fluid
Vaginal secretions
scratches from infected containing blood or other contaminated fluids under their fingernails
you poked a recently dead body and got fluid on you that was absorbed
Tissues that will absorb the above liquids on contact
Mucus membranes (soft tissues like eyes, inner nose, and mouth)
Open sores
Cuts
Abrasions
Acne
Any sort of damaged or broken skin such as sunburn or blisters
Eating Contaminated Meat
Infected humans that have been recently killed
Infected Beef
Note: Even if you cook the meat, the virus is still active
Note: If you are immune, you can’t get sick from contaminated meats
Effects On the Brain
Rabies:
Attacks
Hippocampus
Amygdala
Hypothalamus
Centers for memory, fear, emotion
Alter cell function
Releases neurotransmitters like
Serotonin
GABA
Endogenous opioids
Using the host's chemistry against the host
The anterior cingulate cortex (which regulates anger) is damaged (resulting in hyper-aggression
Be careful though as lesions would cause the opposite and slow down the attack behavior
Ventromedial Hypothalamus – damaged. Creates hyperphagia, excessive hunger, and thirst.
Heightened levels of chemokines (creates an inflammatory response to fight infection)
Central Amygdala (CeA) - stimulation = hunting
CeA projects to the reticular formation (PCRt) = biting
CeA projects to the periaqueductal gray (PAG) locomotion during pursuit
CeA combines the above in goal-directed behavior, hunting and eat
Amygdala (the part that responds to stimulus and decides how to react- panic/fear/anger/lust/etc.)
Frontal lobe (thought process)- must be active enough to receive direction from the thalamus (sensory input)
Motor Cortex- must be active with the frontal lobe to correspond to movement
The thalamus (sensory input) then must be active and able to communicate with the frontal lobe (thought process)
The anterior cingulate cortex (excites or calms the amygdala)- must be dysfunctional, rendering it unable to modulate feelings of anger. (THIS EQUALS HYPER AGGRESSION WHICH WE ARE SEEING. Highly plausible.)
Cerebellum (balance) and Basal Ganglia (coordination) together = (make motions smooth/fluid)- degeneration of this area (ataxia) can cause "a wide-legged, unsteady, lurching walk, usually accompanied by a back and forth tremor in the trunk of the body…"
Mirror Neurons (area that creates empathy)- if the damage would not care about violence done to others
The Ventromedial Hypothalamus- (the region of the brain that lets you know whether you've eaten enough.) If damaged the result is hyperphagia. You will eat and eat and eat, but never feel satiated.
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The periaqueductal gray (PAG) is essential for the expression of both the hunting behaviors performed by predators and the defensive behaviors performed by prey. PAG recognizes and generates appropriate behaviors in response to a variety of aversive stimuli including pain and hypoxia.
Fos = gene that marks cell activation.
Fos found in rostral dorsomedial and dorsolateral PAG, caudal lateral, ventrolateral PAG
rostrolateral PAG
Rostrolaterap PAG = oculomotor nucleus, an area critical for predatory behavior in animals
Lesions to rost. PAG greatly reduces the incidents of attacking and chasing prey
Switches from maternal to predatory behavior
Opioid-dependent
Sends efferent projections to orexinergic neurons in the lateral hypothalamus. Rewarding feelings
Could be projecting into the prefrontal cortex, amygdala, hypothalamus
The central nucleus of the amygdala
Inhibitory projections to the ventral PAG
Activation of this area = prey pursuit
Lateral hypothalamus
Projection to the ventral PAG = made up of GABAergic neurons (drive predatory attack)
Medial preoptic area
Projection to the ventral PAG = hunting behavior towards inanimate objects and natural prey
So
medial preoptic area
sends glutamatergic projections
central amygdala & lateral hypothalamus
project GABAergic projections
=
targets different cell types within the micro-circuitry of the PAG
leading to a coordinated behavioral output
stimulation of single pretectal neurons can induce predatory behavior
two classes of pretectal neuron that project to ipsilateral optic tectum or the contralateral tegmentum. Optogenetic stimulation of single neurons of either class was able to induce sustained hunting sequences, in the absence of prey
stimulation of the anterior-ventral tectum
and optogenetic stimulation of the anterior-ventral tectal region
Coma =
damage to
cerebral cortex
reticular activating system (RAS)
Persistent Vegetative State
Can
some cognitive function ‘primary’
0 association or awareness
No pain
Open eyes move eyes
Sleep wake patterns
Breathe et
Startled by noises
Appear to smile or frown (muscle not control)
May be aware of surroundings
May grab objects if touches hand
Cant
Make conscious movements
Conscious intention
Speak
Follow commands
Move purposefully
Avoid painful stimuli
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