Brain's Frontal Lobes Electrical Activity Potentially Altered by COVID-19
Revised Article:
Here's a lowdown on the brain's response to COVID-19, as presented in a review of recent research.
Neurological Symptoms and COVID-19:
Approximately 15 to 25% of individuals with severe COVID-19 might experience symptoms that affect the brain, such as headaches, confusion, seizures, and strokes. Doctors may order EEG tests to monitor brain electrical activity in such cases.
To delve into the effects of COVID-19 on the brain, researchers scrutinized EEG results from 617 patients (mostly over 60, with male predominance) who had participated in 84 different studies.
Seemingly, the most frequent findings were brain wave slowing and abnormal electrical discharges. The extent of EEG abnormalities was linked to the severity of the disease and whether patients had preexisting neurological conditions.
One striking observation was that a third of reported EEG abnormalities involved the frontal lobes. "It appears that COVID-19's primary entry point, the nose, is situated near these brain areas," notes Dr. Zulfi Haneef, a co-author of the study. "This points to the necessity of broader EEG testing and other imaging techniques, like MRIs and CT scans, for a closer look at the frontal lobe."
Yet, the study authors caution that the virus may not be the sole culprit behind all the detected damage. Factors like inflammation, low oxygen levels, sticky blood, and cardiac arrest might also play a role in EEG abnormalities beyond the frontal lobes.
Around 70% of patients showed "diffuse slowing" in their brain's background electrical activity.
Brain Fog and Long COVID:
Recovered COVID-19 patients have reported ongoing health issues, known as "long COVID." Among them is "brain fog," a cognitive decline that my resemble aging by about a decade, according to some studies. Though more research is needed, these observations fuel concerns about potential long-term effects on the brain.
"The fact that we find EEG abnormalities linked to COVID-19's neurological symptoms adds to these concerns," states Dr. Haneef. "Many people believe that COVID-19 symptoms will simply disappear, but these findings suggest that there may be long-term implications, which we've suspected all along, and now have more evidence to confirm."
On a positive note, around 56.8% of patients who underwent follow-up EEG tests demonstrated improvements. However, the study had some limitations, like lack of raw data access, potential omissions of normal EEG reports, and overrepresentation of EEGs carried out on patients with neurological symptoms. Doctors may have administered anti-seizure medications to suspected seizure patients, possibly obscuring signs of seizures in their EEG traces.
Looking ahead, further research that delves specifically into the correlation between COVID-19 severity and EEG abnormalities in the frontal lobes is called for to solidify the connection.
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- Seizures, as a form of epilepsy seizures, can be one of the neurological symptoms experienced by individuals with severe COVID-19.
- Doctors may employ electroencephalography (EEG) to monitor brain electrical activity in cases where a person is experiencing symptoms that might be related to COVID-19.
- COVID-19 research has estimated that approximately 15 to 25% of individuals with severe COVID-19 might experience neurological symptoms, including seizures and stroke.
- Estimates suggest that around 70% of patients with COVID-19 showed diffuse slowing in their brain's background electrical activity, as observed through EEG tests.
- Studies on health-and-wellness and mental-health have reported that recovered COVID-19 patients may experience ongoing health issues known as "long COVID," which may include cognitive decline, or "brain fog."
- The study findings of one review suggested that around a third of reported EEG abnormalities were observed in the frontal lobes, raising concerns about potential long-term effects on the brain.
