Post COVID brain scan reveals shrinkage: study

• COVID-19 can cause the brain to shrink, study reveals.
• Scientists say the effects were even seen in people who had not been hospitalised.
  
• Study was conducted when the Alpha variant was dominant in Britain
  

COVID-19 can cause thebrainto shrink, reducing grey matter in the regions that control emotion and memory, and damaging areas that control the sense of smell, an Oxford University study has found.

According to BBC, scientists said that the effects were even seen in people who had not been hospitalised withCOVID, and whether the impact could be partially reversed or if they would persist in the long term needed further investigation.

"There is strong evidence forbrain-related abnormalities inCOVID-19," the researchers said in their study, which was released on Monday.

Even in mild cases, participants in the research showed "a worsening of executive function" responsible for focus and organisation, and on an average,brainsize shrank between 0.2% and 2%.

The peer-reviewed study, published in the Nature journal, investigatedbrainchanges in 785 participants aged 51–81 whosebrains werescanned twice, including 401 people who caughtCOVIDbetween their twoscans. The secondscanwas done an average of 141 days after the firstscan.

The study was conducted when the Alpha variant was dominant in Britain and is unlikely to include anyone infected with the Delta variant.

Studies have found some people who hadCOVIDsuffered from "brainfog" or mental cloudiness that included impairments to attention, concentration, speed of information processing and memory.

The researchers did not say if vaccination againstCOVIDhad any impact on the condition, but the UK Health Security Agency said last month that a review of 15 studies found that vaccinated people were about half as likely to develop symptoms of COVIDcompared with the unvaccinated.