Did Covid Change Your Brain? Doctor Explains
Could being infected with CO have changed your brain without you realizing it? Well, a new study from Griffith University suggests so. Now, we know that some people can report cognitive changes after CO, we even call it long CO. So, researchers wanted to see what those changes look like on MRI, but needed something to compare it to and decided to use people who had been infected with COVID, but recovered, as well as people who had no previous recorded infection. But in the process of doing so, they ended up finding something unexpected. The people who had CO and then had fully recovered from it still had changes in brain areas associated with breathing, pain perception, sleep, wake cycles, attention, and memory and motor function. So you may say if they describe themselves as healthy, why does that even matter? Except those changes were associated with worse performance on a cognitive and a physical task. Now these are preliminary findings and need confirmation but suggest that the impact from COVID could be more than the numbers
Source-
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.bbih.2025.101142
A growing body of research suggests that COVID-19 may leave longer-term effects on the brain, even in people who describe themselves as “fully recovered.” A recent study found that individuals who had COVID showed subtle differences in brain structure and function months after infection, including in regions involved with memory, attention, and processing speed. These findings don’t mean everyone will develop severe problems, but they help explain why some people experience lingering cognitive symptoms—often referred to as “brain fog”—well after their acute illness has passed.
Importantly, these changes have been observed even in people who had mild cases and who feel they’ve recovered physically. This doesn’t necessarily mean permanent damage, but it does indicate that the virus and the body’s immune response can affect the brain in ways that aren’t immediately obvious. Continued research is underway to understand how long these changes persist, what mechanisms drive them, and how they might be prevented or treated. What’s clear is that recovery from COVID can be more complex than simply testing negative and feeling better, and paying attention to cognitive health is an important part of long-term wellbeing.
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