The coronavirus can cause certain brain regions to shrink and cognitive abilities to decline, resulting in the so-called “Covid brain,” according to a new study. Further information on the current corona investigations can be found here.
The coronavirus pandemic has been all but forgotten since Russia invaded Ukraine. The virus, however, remains. As the “Daily Mail” recently reported in its latest Corona News, a new study on the Corona virus now clearly shows that Covid-19 disease should not be taken lightly.
New corona study shows: Covid-19 shrinks the brain
According to researchers at Oxford University, Covid infection can triple the rate of brain degeneration in middle-aged and elderly people. For their current study, the researchers looked at brain scans of over 400 people aged 51 to 81 before and after they developed Alzheimer’s disease.
Coronavirus accelerates brain degeneration, according to the latest coronavirus news.
The results showed that compared to a control group that did not have Covid, the brain volume of Covid sufferers shrank by an average of 0.7 percent in the regions associated with the sense of smell. In this range, a middle-aged person can expect a 0.2 percent volume loss per year, while an older person can expect a 0.3 percent decrease.
The Covid patients in the study had an average of four months between the two scans, suggesting that the virus significantly accelerates the rate of degeneration. Additionally, those who recovered took longer to complete cognitive tests and performed worse than healthy peers.
Covid causes cognitive impairment by depleting brain mass.
The researchers analyzed the brains of patients with pneumonia to ensure the decline in brain mass and cognitive ability was not caused by a respiratory disease and found no similar changes. The results could shed light on why many people suffer from brain fog and other neurological problems months after a Covid infection has cleared.
In older corona patients, the decrease in brain volume is more pronounced.
The reduction in brain volume was more pronounced in older people and the 15 patients who were hospitalized with the disease, according to the Oxford researchers. Patients with mild to moderate Covid disease, as well as those who had no symptoms, saw a decline.
Is it true that a corona infection permanently damages the brain?
“Although the infection was mild in 96 percent of our participants, we saw greater gray matter volume loss and tissue damage in infected participants,” said Professor Gewnelle Douаud, a neuroscientist who led the study. “Do those infected with corona have to worry now?” The expert gives the green light: “The brain is plastic, which means that it can reorganize and heal itself to a certain extent, even in older people,” she says.
The parhippocampal gyrus, a key region for the sense of smell, and the cerebellum, which is responsible for balance and coordination, have both shown reductions in brain mass. The study, published in Nature, is believed to be the first to look at large-scale changes in the brain after Covid infection.
See also: The “silver bullet” of Covid-19. THIS treatment is uplifting.
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sba / loc / news.de
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