Brain's Frontal Lobes Electrical Activity Potentially Affected by COVID-19
COVID-19 ain't just a lung-pounder, it's messing with brains too, and a review of studies indicates that around a third of patients exhibiting neurological symptoms due to the virus show abnormalities in EEG tests, focusing on the frontal lobes of the brain.
Scientists from Baylor College of Medicine in Texas and the University of Pittsburgh analyzed EEG results from 617 patients, found in 84 different studies. The most common findings were slowing of brain waves and abnormal electrical discharges, which correlated with the severity of the disease and the existence of preexisting neurological conditions.
The correlation between the virus's entry point – the nose – and the affected brain region – the frontal lobes – won't come as a surprise to Dr. Zulfi Haneef, an assistant professor of neurology/neurophysiology at Baylor. Haneef is one of the authors of the study and commented, "These findings tell us that we need to try EEG on a wider range of patients, as well as other types of brain imaging, such as MRI or CT scans, that will give us a closer look at the frontal lobe."
However, it's not just the virus causing the damage, but systemic effects of the infection like inflammation, low oxygen levels, "sticky" blood, and cardiac arrest might also play a part in the EEG abnormalities seen beyond the frontal lobes.
Now, people with lingering health issues post-COVID, known as long COVID, are experiencing "brain fog." A recent study found that individuals who claimed to have had COVID performed worse on an online cognitive test than those who did not believe they contracted the virus, potentially indicating that the infection may have aged them cognitively by about a decade. However, experts suggest that this study doesn't conclusively prove that the infection causes long-term cognitive decline.
Haneef believes that the EEG abnormalities associated with COVID-19 neurological symptoms only add to these concerns. "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. We need to keep investigating to understand the full impact of COVID on the brain."
On a positive note, improvement was seen in 56.8% of patients who underwent follow-up EEG tests. The researchers admit that their study had limitations, such as lack of access to raw data from individual studies, omitted normal EEGs, and potential skewing of results due to more EEGs performed on patients with neurological symptoms. Additionally, some patients may have received anti-seizure medications, which may have obscured signs of seizures in their EEG traces.
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- Alongside its lung-pounding effects, the coronavirus has been linked to an increased prevalence of neurological symptoms and associated EEG abnormalities, with a third of patients showing signs during studies.
- The review of EEG results from multiple studies, led by Baylor College of Medicine and the University of Pittsburgh, uncovered significant irregularities in brain waves and electrical discharges, particularly focusing on the frontal lobes, which correlate with disease severity and preexisting neurological conditions.
- Despite the virus being the primary culprit, other systemic aspects of the infection, such as inflammation, low oxygen levels, and cardiac arrest, may contribute to the observed EEG abnormalities beyond the frontal lobes.
- Post-COVID health concerns, including "brain fog," have been reported and may involve long-term cognitive decline, as suggested by recent research; however, this needs further investigation to reach a definitive conclusion.
