More evidence of brain damage from mild COVID-19. Previous studies tested metabolic or electrical activity separately; this one tested both together.
They found both lower metabolism and slower neuron firing in the same brain areas of people with Long COVID.
significant hypometabolism in the bilateral frontal, temporal, and parietal lobes, as well as in the left occipital lobe, along with predominantly frontal EEG slowing in post-COVID-19 patients compared to healthy controls
the functional impact on memory was very strong:
a high incidence of subjective memory decline: 52.9% of post-COVID-19 patients scored more than 1.5 standard deviations [worse than] the normative sample on both the prospective and retrospective memory scales.
1.5 standard deviations is HUGE. That means that in a room of 101 people, lined up from best to worst memory, if person 51 in the middle gets Long COVID, they would expect to end up with the 7th worst memory in the room. From literally average to under the bottom 10%!
Both hypometabolism and changes in spectral power are indicators of underlying neuronal stress or damage
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-025-04815-6
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