Uganda's mysterius noding disees
http://www.newscientist.com/article/dn21316-mysterious-nodding-syndrome-spreading-through-uganda.html http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nodding_disease Mass hysteria anyone? http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mass_hysteria But then again, mass hysteria does not kaus mental retardation AFAIN [as far as i no]. I think the kloo [clue] with the unusual food is the best kloo:
“Other recommendations are; a need for strengthening of the surveillance and obtain cases house by house during national immunization days and offer social support to the children with NS and encouraging parents not to isolate them. Children with Nodding Syndrome, tend to nod their heads when the patient sees food or when he/she feels cold then will develop a seizure like condition. As soon as either of these conditions is met, the afflicted will immediately begin to nod. These are brief and stop soon after the child stops eating or when they feel warm again. However, this symptom is very unusual as the patients don't appear to suffer from seizures when they are given an unfamiliar food, for example a chocolate or non traditional food. The seizures can be severe and cause the child to fall, leading to head trauma.” (sors; my emfasis)
One hypothesis is that somthing has gon rong in an area of the brain that rekognises food or is somhow related to food, such that it trigers wenever a person detekts food. It wud be very neet if that area of the brain hapened to be near an area that has to do with temperatur chanjes, as that wud provide a unifyd explanation. To test the hypothesis, i propose puting somone with the disees in a brain skaner and provoking a reaktion. Also, provide the person with som unusual food and note the efekts on the brain.