COVID-19 may Enduringly Impact cognitive performance and brain haemodynamics in undergraduate students.

COVID-19 may Enduringly Impact cognitive performance and brain haemodynamics in undergraduate students.

Publication date: Dec 19, 2024

To date, 770 million people worldwide have contracted COVID-19, with many reporting long-term “brain fog”. Concerningly, young adults are both overrepresented in COVID-19 infection rates and may be especially vulnerable to prolonged cognitive impairments following infection. This calls for focused research on this population to better understand the mechanisms underlying cognitive impairment post-COVID-19. Addressing gaps in the literature, the current study investigated differences in neuropsychological performance and cerebral haemodynamic activity following COVID-19 infection in undergraduate students. 94 undergraduates (age in years: M = 20. 58, SD = 3. 33, range = 18 to 46; 89 % female) at the University of Otago reported their COVID-19 infection history before completing a neuropsychological battery while wearing a multichannel near-infrared spectroscopy (NIRS) device to record prefrontal haemodynamics. We observed that 40 % retrospectively self-reported cognitive impairment (brain fog) due to COVID-19 and 37 % exhibited objective evidence of cognitive impairment (assessed via computerised testing), with some suggestion that executive functioning may have been particularly affected; however, group-level analyses indicated preserved cognitive performance post COVID-19, which may in part reflect varying compensatory abilities. The NIRS data revealed novel evidence that previously infected students exhibited distinct prefrontal haemodynamic patterns during cognitive engagement, reminiscent of those observed in adults four decades older, and this appeared to be especially true if they reported experiencing brain fog due to COVID-19. These results provide new insights into the potential neuropathogenic mechanisms influencing cognitive impairment following COVID-19.

Concepts Keywords
Decades Brain Fog
Female Cognition
Immun Cognitive Functioning
Otago Haemodynamic Response
Undergraduates Long COVID
NIRS
Post-COVID
SARS-CoV-2
Young Adults

Semantics

Type Source Name
disease MESH COVID-19
disease MESH brain fog
disease MESH infection
disease MESH cognitive impairments
drug DRUGBANK Tropicamide
disease IDO history
disease MESH Long Covid Brain Fog
disease MESH Long COVID

Original Article

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