Brain's Frontal Lobe Electrical Activity Disrupted by COVID-19
Rewritten Article:
COVID-19's influence on the brain has become a subject of intense investigation. A sizeable portion of patients experiencing severe symptoms have reported neurological symptoms, such as headaches, confusion, delirium, impaired consciousness, seizures, and strokes. In response to these symptoms, doctors often refer patients for an Electroencephalography (EEG) test, which monitors the brain's electrical activity.
Researchers at Baylor College of Medicine and the University of Pittsburgh analyzed EEG results from 617 patients across 84 studies to better understand COVID-19's neurological effects. The study found that the most common EEG abnormalities were a slowing of brain waves and unusual electrical discharges, which were more prominent in patients with severe disease and preexisting neurological conditions, such as epilepsy.
Dr. Zulfi Haneef, one of the study's co-authors, noted that nearly one-third of abnormal findings were in the frontal lobes of the brain. Given the virus's likely entry point is the nose, he speculated a link between the frontal lobe and the infection. He urged wider use of EEG tests and other brain imaging techniques like Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) or Computed Tomography (CT) scans to examine the frontal lobe more closely.
However, it's essential to acknowledge that the virus may not be directly responsible for all the damage. Systemic effects of the infection, such as inflammation, low oxygen levels, unusually "sticky" blood, and cardiac arrest, might contribute to EEG abnormalities that extend beyond the frontal lobes. The study identified "diffuse slowing" in the background electrical activity of the whole brain in almost 70% of patients.
COVID-19 survivors have reported ongoing health issues, popularly known as long COVID. Among these is popularly known as brain fog. A recent study observed that individuals who claimed to have had COVID-19 performed less well on an online cognitive test compared to those who did not believe they contracted the virus. The authors suggested the infection may have aged people cognitively by around a decade.
Experts caution that this cross-sectional study does not prove that the infection caused long-term cognitive decline. Nevertheless, it highlights concerns about lasting effects on the brain. Dr. Haneef concurred, stating, "A lot of people think they will get the illness, get well, and everything will go back to normal, but these findings tell us that there might be long-term issues, which is something we have suspected, and now we are finding more evidence to back that up."
On a positive note, the study found that 56.8% of patients with follow-up EEG tests showed improvements. However, the researchers noted several limitations, such as limited access to raw data from individual studies, potential skewing of results due to doctors performing disproportionately more EEGs on patients with neurological symptoms, and obscuring signs of seizures due to the use of anti-seizure medication.
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[2] Multisystem inflammatory syndrome in children associated with SARS-CoV-2: a systematic review and mechanistic framework, Nature Reviews Immunology, Aug 2020
[3] COVID-19 central nervous system pathology and neurological complications – A retrospective autopsy study of five cases, Brain, Behavior, and Immunity, Sep 2020
[4] Potential neurological complications of COVID-19 infection beyond the central nervous system, Journal of Neuroinflammation, Aug 2020
- The neurological effects of COVID-19 are under extensive investigation, with a significant number of severe cases reporting symptoms like seizures, strokes, and epilepsy seizures.
- A study led by researchers at Baylor College of Medicine and the University of Pittsburgh discovered that the most common EEG abnormalities in COVID-19 patients were slowed brain waves and unusual electrical discharges, particularly in patients with severe disease and pre-existing neurological conditions.
- Long COVID survivors have reported ongoing health issues, including brain fog, which may impact the health-and-wellness, mental-health, and neurological-disorders of individuals due to long-term cognitive decline.
- The study findings suggest that while COVID-19 might not directly cause all the neurological damage, it could contribute to EEG abnormalities in areas beyond the frontal lobes due to systemic effects like inflammation, low oxygen levels, and cardiac arrest.
