Brain's frontal lobes may face electrical disruptions due to COVID-19
Finding Abnormalities in COVID-19 Patients' Brains: The Frontal Lobes Turn Out to Be a Hotspot
It appears that research shows that irregularities in the frontal part of the brain, as detected by electroencephalography (EEG) tests, are common among patients experiencing neurological symptoms associated with COVID-19.
Estimates suggest that approximately 15-25% of individuals with severe COVID-19 may encounter neurological issues, including headaches, confusion, delirium, altered consciousness, seizures, and strokes. These patients may be subjected to EEG tests by healthcare professionals to assess brain activity.
Study researchers from Baylor College of Medicine and the University of Pittsburgh gathered and analyzed EEG results from 617 patients from 84 different studies.
The average age of patients subjected to EEG was 61.3 years, and approximately two-thirds were male. research revealed that the most prevalent findings were a slowing of brain waves and abnormal electrical discharges.
Interestingly, the researchers found that the more severe the disease and the existence of preexisting neurological conditions, such as epilepsy, the more significant the EEG abnormalities.
Approximately a third of the abnormalities were identified in the frontal lobes of the brain.
"Given the most common entry point for the virus is the nose, there seems to be a connection between the part of the brain that's right next to that entry point," says Dr. Zulfi Haneef, assistant professor of neurology/neurophysiology at Baylor and one of the co-authors. "These findings suggest that we should expand the use of EEG tests, as well as other types of brain imaging, like MRI or CT scans, to get a closer look at the frontal lobe."
Yet, it's crucial to consider that the virus may not be the sole culprit for all the neurological damage observed. Systemic effects of the infection, such as inflammation, low oxygen levels, unusually "sticky" blood, and cardiac arrest, may contribute to EEG abnormalities that aren't limited to the frontal lobes.
The investigation identified "diffuse slowing" in the background electrical activity of the whole brain in almost 70% of patients.
With the rise of ongoing health problems following COVID-19 recoveries, often labeled "long COVID," one of the most concerning symptoms is "brain fog."
Recent research found that individuals who claimed to have had COVID-19 performed less effectively on an online cognitive test than those who did not believe they had contracted the virus. The study suggests that the infection might have aged people cognitively by around a decade.
While these findings do not conclusively prove that the infection causes long-term cognitive decline, they certainly raise concerns regarding lingering effects on the brain.
"With the findings correlating EEG abnormalities with neurological symptoms of COVID-19 infection, these concerns become even more pressing," says Dr. Haneef. "Many people assume they'll get sick, recover, and get back to normal, but these findings suggest there might be long-term issues—something we've suspected, and now we have more evidence to support that notion."
On a positive note, the authors report that 56.8% of those with follow-up EEG tests showed improvements.
The authors acknowledge several limitations in their analysis, such as limited access to raw data from individual studies, potential omission of normal EEGs, and the possibility that anti-seizure medications obscured signs of seizures in EEG traces.
[1] Estimates based on a systematic review and meta-analysis of the pooled data of patients with neurologic manifestations of COVID-19: a rapid systematic review. Critical Care. 2020 Sep 3;24(1):258.
[2] Olfactory bulb abnormalities in asymptomatic SARS-CoV-2 positive individuals. Byun J. Nature Communications. 2021 Jan 13;12(1):474.
- The coronavirus, specifically in severe COVID-19 cases, has been linked to neurological symptoms such as seizures, headaches, and strokes, with estimates suggesting that 15-25% of severe COVID-19 patients may encounter such issues.
- EEG tests are used to assess brain activity in COVID-19 patients experiencing neurological symptoms, and research has shown that irregularities, like slowing of brain waves and abnormal electrical discharges, are common among these patients.
- Interestingly, the researchers found that the more severe the disease and the existence of preexisting neurological conditions, such as epilepsy, the more significant the EEG abnormalities, with approximately a third of the abnormalities identified in the frontal lobes of the brain.
- Given the coronavirus's common entry point being the nose, it seems there's a connection between the part of the brain (frontal lobes) that's right next to that entry point.
- With the rise of ongoing health problems following COVID-19 recoveries, often labeled "long COVID," one of the most concerning symptoms is "brain fog." Recent research suggests that the infection might have aged people cognitively by around a decade.
- While the virus may not be the sole culprit for all the neurological damage observed, the investigation identified "diffuse slowing" in the background electrical activity of the whole brain in almost 70% of patients, raising concerns regarding lingering effects on mental health, health-and-wellness, and neurological disorders like epilepsy or other mental-health conditions.
