Brain and cognitive changes in patients with long COVID compared with infection-recovered control subjects, 2024, Serrano del Pueblo et al.

Brain and cognitive changes in patients with long COVID compared with infection-recovered control subjects
Serrano del Pueblo, Víctor M; Serrano-Heras, Gemma; Romero Sánchez, Carlos M; Piqueras Landete, Pepa; Rojas-Bartolome, Laura; Feria, Inmaculada; Morris, Richard G M; Strange, Bryan; Mansilla, Francisco; Zhang, Linda; Castro-Robles, Beatriz; Arias-Salazar, Lourdes; López-López, Susana; Payá, María; Segura, Tomás; Muñoz-López, Mónica

Between 2.5 and 28% of people infected with SARS-CoV-2 suffer Long COVID or persistence of symptoms for months after acute illness. Many symptoms are neurological, but the brain changes underlying the neuropsychological impairments remain unclear. This study aimed to provide a detailed description of the cognitive profile, the pattern of brain alterations in Long COVID and the potential association between them.

To address these objectives, 83 patients with persistent neurological symptoms after COVID-19 were recruited, and 22 now healthy controls chosen because they had suffered COVID-19 but did not experience persistent neurological symptoms. Patients and controls were matched for age, sex and educational level. All participants were assessed by clinical interview, comprehensive standardized neuropsychological tests and structural MRI.

The mean global cognitive function of patients with Long COVID assessed by ACE III screening test (Overall Cognitive level - OCLz = -0.39±0.12) was significantly below the infection recovered-controls (OCLz = +0.32± 0.16, p< 0.01). We observed that 48% of patients with Long COVID had episodic memory deficit, with 27% also impaired overall cognitive function, especially attention, working memory, processing speed and verbal fluency. The MRI examination included grey matter morphometry and whole brain structural connectivity analysis. Compared to infection recovered controls, patients had thinner cortex in a specific cluster centred on the left posterior superior temporal gyrus. In addition, lower fractional anisotropy (FA) and higher radial diffusivity (RD) were observed in widespread areas of the patients' cerebral white matter relative to these controls. Correlations between cognitive status and brain abnormalities revealed a relationship between altered connectivity of white matter regions and impairments of episodic memory, overall cognitive function, attention and verbal fluency.

This study shows that patients with neurological Long COVID suffer brain changes, especially in several white matter areas, and these are associated with impairments of specific cognitive functions.

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Without any evidence to support it. An extraordinary claim with no evidence, a mere traditional myth. The same mistake repeating itself identically thousands of times over without anyone learning anything or even being bothered that they are repeating the same mistake over and over and over again.

The most important thing about mistakes is not repeating them. Not even once. Mistakes are OK, they happen. Repeating them is never OK. Not even for children, this is how we teach responsibility and behaving like a mature person. This is thousands of times over, and there will be hundreds, possibly thousands, more in the future.

Because this here accepts the premise that it needs no evidence and that what it takes is to find the real reason, as if this is a normal process, like the old days of figuring out that divine mysterious ways aren't so mysterious after all. This is a blatantly invalid way of doing anything.