COVID-19 can damage brain tissue, U.K. study suggests
CTV
Some regions of the human brain may shrink after a person has caught COVID-19, according to the first study to use brain scans to show a 'before and after' look at the brain following infection.
A new U.K. study published Monday in the journal Nature found that there is greater tissue damage and shrinkage in the brains of those who had even mild cases of COVID-19, with most of the changes relating to areas of the brain that have to do with smell.
It’s unclear yet whether these effects are permanent or will improve with time, or what they could mean for overall brain health or function, with researchers noting that some brain loss occurs with age.
To attempt to measure the impact of COVID-19, researchers looked at brain changes in 785 people between the ages of 51 to 81 who had undergone two brain scans and accompanying cognitive tests.
The key part of the data is that 401 participants contracted COVID-19 after their first scan and before their second scan, providing a chance to see whether imaging would show greater changes to the brain in those participants.
