00:00Even relatively mild COVID-19 infections can leave a distinct mark on the brain.
00:09A new study shows that COVID-19 infection is linked to shrinkage and damage in specific brain
00:15areas. This study was based on data from more than 700 people who had, prior to the pandemic,
00:22contributed brain scans to a large repository based in the UK.
00:26Between March 2020 and April 2021, about 400 of these individuals caught COVID-19.
00:32Most were not hospitalized for their infections. After they recovered, researchers re-scanned their
00:37brains to see whether the organ structure had changed at all following the infection.
00:42The team compared these before and after snapshots to those from 384 people who hadn't caught the virus.
00:49These brain scans revealed distinct patterns of shrinkage in the brains of people who caught
00:54COVID-19. The damage was more extensive and occurred in different regions than the normal
00:59changes that showed up in people who never caught the virus. In particular, damage appeared in brain
01:05areas involved in smell processing and memory encoding. The orbitofrontal cortex and perihippocampal
01:12gyrus showed the most pronounced shrinkage in people who caught COVID-19, and those individuals
01:17also showed a greater reduction in overall brain size than those who didn't catch the virus.
01:23Tissue damage also appeared in brain areas connected to the primary olfactory cortex,
01:28which receives sensory information from scent-detecting neurons in the nose.
01:33Plus, people who caught COVID-19 showed greater decline on various cognitive tests,
01:39which were designed to assess attention and executive function compared with the control group.
01:44The new study doesn't address exactly how this damage occurs, although scientists have several
01:49theories on this front. The virus may directly infect brain cells, some think. Others suspect
01:55that inflammation in the brain may be to blame for the changes. Or, potentially, a loss of sensory
02:00information from the nose, caused by smell loss, may cause various brain areas to atrophy over time.
02:07A study published in Cell last month hinted that the virus likely doesn't invade the brain directly,
02:12but the study author still mentioned this as a possibility.
02:16It's also possible that the way in which the coronavirus wreaks havoc in the brain differs
02:21slightly between different coronavirus variants. Future studies should address this question directly,
02:26as well as the question of how long the observed cognitive deficits might last.
02:32The new study also doesn't address whether the COVID-related damage could accelerate normal
02:37structural brain changes that typically occur in line with aging.
02:42Future research can look into these potential downstream effects, while other studies can focus on how
02:47these findings might apply to people with long COVID, who often report symptoms like memory issues and brain fog.
02:54COVID-19??
02:56the memory of the pandemic issues of reifies...
02:59our end could see the definition being of an toughest-like meeting.
03:01The threat can generate a statement, that don't oftentimes have to be a preliminary
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