By Michael Greenwood, M.Sc. Jun 18 2021
There has been extensive evidence of brain-related pathologies associated with COVID-19 disease throughout the pandemic, with “brain fog” and other cognitive defects being reported in the large majority of severe cases, and even otherwise asymptomatic cases widely reporting the loss of the senses of taste and smell.
A post-mortem analysis of the nervous system and the brain has indeed shown the virus to be widespread, although whether mild or asymptomatic cases cause chronic neurological symptoms is yet to be determined since the majority of research has centered on severe and hospitalized patients.
In a research paper recently uploaded to the preprint server medRxiv* by Prof. Gwenaëlle Douaud et al. (June 15th, 2021), participants that had taken part in a brain study prior to the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic were invited back for a series of follow-up tests, revealing significant losses of grey matter surrounding the olfactory and gustatory system in those that had been infected with severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2).
How was the study performed?
UK Biobank is a long-term research and data center that collects and collates in-depth genetic and health information, and in the years prior to the onset of the pandemic, thousands of individuals underwent multimodal brain imaging.
Click HERE to Subscribe for the MS Beacon eNewsletter and database