What Does Covid Do to the Brain and Mind?

What Does Covid Do to the Brain and Mind?

International and Arab News

Many of us have put Covid largely out of our minds. But one of the most intriguing and important areas of study is exactly what Covid does to the mind. The answer to that question is still far from clear. And yet it affects how we treat Covid as well as how we manage future pandemics and viruses.

In a study published this week in the journal Nature, neuroscientist Gwenaelle Douaud and colleagues examined brain scans of 785 participants from the UK biobank, which holds genetic data and brain scans of 40,000 people, the largest resource of its kind anywhere. Their findings offer a robust indication that getting Covid, even a mild case, changes the biology of the brain and its functioning.

A little more than half of the participants tested positive for Covid between two scans. Among those who had Covid, their scans showed a reduction in grey matter thickness in certain regions of the brain, greater changes in markers for tissue damage in regions connected to the primary olfactory cortex, governing our sense of smell, and a decrease in overall brain size. Some of the changes were the equivalent of up to a decade of normal aging.