Category Archives: Brain

The Neurologic Complications of COVID-19 

February 16, 2021

The neurologic features of COVID-19 infection still remain under investigation as a growing number of reports indicates the potential for cognitive symptoms in certain patient cases. Recent research has examined high-resolution magnetic resonance imagery to reveal microvascular brain injury and inflammation in COVID-19 patients who have died, however, no evidence of direct SARS-CoV-2 viral attack in tissue samples has been reported.  The damage is reportedly caused by thinning and leaky brain blood vessels tied to the viral infection, per a letter recently published in the New England Journal of Medicine.

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The Cognitive Complications of COVID-19

November 25, 2020

At this time, the long-term complications of COVID-19 remain unknown although there is evidence of changes aside from acute symptoms referred to as “long COVID.” Several case studies have reported neurological problems in severely affected COVID-19 patients – such complications may arise from associated stroke, inflammatory syndrome, immune responses, and other health factors.

Currently, there is little clinical information concerning the nature and prevalence of cognitive consequences post-COVID infection, the full spectrum of their severity, or the connection between hospitalization status. Emerging evidence points to potential cognitive deficits associated with the virus, revealing significant brain function impacts in the worst cases of infection, according to a recent non-peer-reviewed study.

Cognitive Performance in COVID-19 Survivors

Led by Imperial College London doctor, Adam Hampshire, the study encompassed a cohort of over 84,000 participants who performed cognitive tests aimed at assessing brain performance, including word recall and puzzles. Data for analysis was gathered from the Great British Intelligence Test. The research team controlled results for age, gender, education level, income, racial-ethnic group, and pre-existing medical conditions.

The study revealed that participants who recovered from suspected or confirmed COVID-19 performed worse on cognitive tests in multiple domains than expected given their age and demographic profiles. Observed cognitive defects were of “substantial effect size,” especially among individuals who had been hospitalized with COVID-19. Furthermore, deficits scaled with symptom severity with the worst cases of illness showing a cognitive impact equivalent to a 10-year decline in global performance in patients aged between 20 and 70 years.

“Our analyses … align with the view that there are chronic cognitive consequences of having COVID-19,” the researchers wrote in a report of their findings. “People who had recovered, including those no longer reporting symptoms, exhibited significant cognitive deficits.”

Study Limitations

Hampshire and his team’s results are worrisome, however, their findings are yet to be reviewed by other researchers. Experts warn that the latest results should be interpreted with caution as the cognitive health of participants pre-COVID infection was not known or accounted for in the study. In addition, the study’s findings do not reflect long-term recovery, indicating that the cognitive effects may only be present for the short term. Study’s findings can not be entirely reliable as they do not compare before and after scores, involved a large number of people who self-reported having COVID-19 with no positive test measure

Nonetheless, the latest study alongside other emerging research on the potential cognitive repercussions of COVID-19 illness add to a growing list of concerns. While current literature signals potential for cognitive complications, it warrants further investigation and understanding of the duration of such cognitive deficits. Forthcoming studies should aim to identify the extent to which cognition is affected after infection and whether permanent neurological damage to brain function is possible.

Racial Stigmatization & Brain Health

November 12, 2020

As stress has been found to modulate the brain’s reward response, researchers at the University of California, Santa Barbara (UCSB) conducted a study investigating the effects of discrimination and dealing with negative stigma on brain functioning. The new study revealed the negative implications of racial stereotyping on the behavior of the subcortical nucleus accumbens, an area of the brain associated with anticipation of reward and punishment. Their findings were published in a paper featured in Social Cognitive and Affective Neuroscience. 

Consequences of Racial Stigmatization 

Study author Kyle Ratner, a social psychologist, and his colleagues investigated the effect of negative stereotyping on brain processing in 40 Latinx UCSB students. Participants were randomly assigned to either stigma condition or control groups. Researchers monitored participants’ brain functioning using a functional MRI as they were shown a rapid series of eight 2-3-minute videos pertaining to childhood obesity, high school dropout rates, gang-related violence, and teenage pregnancy.

In the stigmatized group, videos discussed the topics from the Latinx community perspective, suggesting that these individuals were disproportionately affected by them. Meanwhile, the control group was shown videos as related to the general U.S. population. After watching the videos, participants were asked to complete a Monetary Incentive Delay task in which faster response times resulted in monetary rewards.

Altered Brain Functioning

According to the study’s authors, machine learning analyses indicated that incentive-related patterns differed between Latinx participants subjected to negative stereotypes and those within the control group. Researchers found that individuals in the stigma condition group were significantly slower at the task than the control group, indicating disparities linked to the framing of the videos shown.

These effects were tied to personal motivation as related to nucleus accumbens functioning, according to the study’s authors, who highlight the compounding nature of external stressors that is affecting the health of disadvantaged demographics.

“It is clear that people who belong to historically marginalized groups in the U.S. contend with burdensome stressors on top of the everyday stressors that members of non-disadvantaged groups experience,” Ratner told Medical News Today in a recent article. “For instance, there is the trauma of overt racism, stigmatizing portrayals in the media and popular culture, and systemic discrimination that leads to disadvantages in many domains of life, from employment and education to healthcare and housing to the legal system.”

As such, the latest findings implicate that stigmatizing minority populations may impact how these individuals process incentives, expanding understanding of the association between racial stereotyping and personal motivation. This has significant implications for the wellbeing and health of members of these communities and requires further research efforts.

Despite the latest evidence, the study’s authors warn against generalizing their findings as the investigation primarily focused on a singular effect of stigmatization and only evaluated college students. They plan to conduct further experiments in a larger, more diverse cohort to improve the current understanding of systemic effects of structural racism and stereotyping on affected groups and their brain functioning.