According to a Reuters report, an Oxford University study has found that Covid-19 can cause the brain to shrink, reduce grey matter in the regions that control emotion and memory, and damage areas that control the sense of smell.
The effects were even seen in people who had not been hospitalised with Covid, the scientists said, adding that whether the impact could be partially reversed or if they would persist in the long term needed further investigation.
In their study, which was released on Monday, researchers said: “There is strong evidence for brain-related abnormalities in Covid-19.”
During the research, participants even with mild cases showed “a worsening of executive function” responsible for focus and organising, and on an average brain sizes shrank between 0.2% and 2%.
Published in the Nature journal, the peer-reviewed study investigated brain changes in 785 participants aged 5181 whose brains were scanned twice, including 401 people who caught Covid between their two scans. The second scan was done on average 141 days after the first scan.
The Oxford Study was carried out when the Alpha variant was dominant in Britain and is unlikely to include anyone infected with the Delta variant.
In several studies earlier, it was found that people who had Covid suffered from “brain fog” or mental cloudiness that included impairment to attention, concentration, speed of information processing and memory.
Though the researchers did not indulge into specifying the impact of vaccination against Covid on the condition but the UK Health Security Agency said last month that a review of 15 studies found that vaccinated people were about half as likely to develop symptoms of long Covid compared with the unvaccinated.
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