Covid-19 can leave neurological sequelae in patients who have had moderate and severe cases of the disease. A recent study published by the scientific journal Cortex indicates the discovery of prosopagnosia — also known as “face blindness” — as one of the recurrent conditions after the end of the infection.
Face blindness is a disorder that affects the ability to recognize faces relatives. The research carried out by Marie-Luise Kieseler and Brad Duchaine, neuropsychologists and members of the Laboratory of Social Perception at Dartmouth University, followed the case of dozens of patients who presented the neurological symptom after infection.
The researchers worked with 28-year-old Annie, who was diagnosed with Covid-19 in March 2020. After two months, the patient suffered a relapse, and soon after, she began to have difficulty recognizing the faces of her own relatives.
“It was like my father’s voice came out of a stranger’s face,” said Annie, who now needs to hear the voices of familiar people in order to recognize them. The patient also reports that she faced memory problems after the SARS-CoV-2 infection, such as difficulty remembering where to park her car.
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07 Mar
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Duchaine, senior author of the research and professor of psychological and brain sciences, explains that the existence of both sequels can be explained by the affected region in the brain. “This co-occurrence is due to the fact that the two abilities depend on neighboring brain regions in the temporal lobe”, said the specialist.
memory tests
The team conducted a series of tests to assess facial recognition issues. Identifying family members, celebrities and memorizing new faces were the most complicated tasks for the patient. The woman correctly identified 29% of the 48 celebrities she was familiar with, while the control mean was 84%.
A second test consisted of presenting the name of a celebrity, and then showing two different faces. Annie was supposed to point out which face belonged to the famous person. The patient identified the celebrity in 69% of the 58 trials; the control group, by 87%.
To determine whether others have experienced such long-term Covid-19-related issues, the research team obtained data reported by 54 individuals who had the illness with symptoms for 12 weeks or more and 32 people who reported having fully recovered.
“The majority of respondents with long-term cases reported that their cognitive and perceptual abilities have declined since they had Covid-19,” said Kieseler. What is really surprising, on the other hand, is the large number of people who reported deficiencies – that is, significant loss of recognition ability.
“It was not just a small concentration of cases, but a vast majority of people in the long-term group who reported noticeable difficulties in carrying out tasks that they were able to do before contracting the disease without problems.”
Experts intend to continue research to discover the level at which the virus is capable of impairing human cognitive abilities. In January, scientists discovered through autopsies that the coronavirus can lodge in the brain, muscles and nerves of patients.