Brain's frontal lobes can experience electrical disruptions due to COVID-19
Fresh Take:
COVID-19 wreaks havoc on various aspects of the body, and the brain isn't exception. As per recent research, about 15-25% of severe COVID-19 patients experience neurological symptoms, which can range from headaches to impaired consciousness. These symptoms can be scrutinized with electroencephalography (EEG) tests. Researchers scrutinized EEG results from 617 patients across 84 studies and found that the most common findings were slow brain waves and abnormal electrical discharges.
Surprisingly, the majority of these abnormalities were located in the frontal lobes of the brain, leading to speculations that the virus might find its entry point there, thanks to its proximity to the nose – the usual entry point of the virus. However, the virus might not be solely responsible for all the observed damage; systemic effects of the infection, such as inflammation, low oxygen levels, sticky blood, and cardiac arrest could also play a role in the EEG abnormalities extending beyond the frontal lobes.
The study identified "diffuse slowing" in the background electrical activity of the whole brain in about 70% of patients. This could explain the phenomenon known as "brain fog," where individuals who have recovered from COVID-19 report ongoing health problems, sometimes referred to as long COVID.
A recent, yet-to-be-published study found that people who claim to have had COVID-performed less well on an online cognitive test compared to those who didn't believe they had contracted the virus, indicating a possible long-term cognitive decline attributable to the infection. This cross-sectional study doesn't prove causation, but it certainly raises concerns about long-term cognitive effects.
Dr. Zulfi Haneef, who co-authored the review, states that these findings imply long-term issues that might have been suspected, and now there is more evidence to support them. On the brighter side, the study also found that over half (56.8%) of patients who had follow-up EEG tests showed improvements. Nonetheless, the analysis had several limitations such as lack of access to raw data, doctors possibly omitting to report normal EEGs, and using anti-seizure medications, which might have concealed signs of seizures in EEG traces.
In conclusion, EEG abnormalities in COVID-19 patients stem from various causes and are correlated with the severity of the disease. These abnormalities could reflect long-term neurological effects, such as cognitive impairment, increased risk for neurodegenerative diseases, and chronic fatigue. Ongoing research is essential to discovering suitable therapies for managing these effects.
- The coronavirus, which causes COVID-19, has been linked to a range of neurological symptoms in severe patients, including epilepsy seizures, as indicated by findings from EEG tests.
- The study of EEG results from COVID-19 patients revealed that long-term health-and-wellness conditions, such as cognitive impairment and chronic fatigue, might be associated with neurological disorders related to the virus.
- The science behind the impact of COVID-19 on health and wellness suggests that there could be long-term cognitive declines and an increased risk for neurological diseases like neurodegenerative diseases, due to EEG abnormalities observed in COVID-19 patients.
