Brain's Frontal Lobes Electrical Activity May Be Affected by COVID-19
Freaky Finder: COVID-19's Brain-Poking Impact
Brain weirdness among COVID-19 patients is becoming a hot topic. You got it - we're talking electroencephalography (EEG) results, and they're showing some puzzling patterns, especially in the front of the brain.
Here's the tea:
15-25% of those battling the serious stages of coronavirus may sport neurological symptoms like headaches, confusion, and strokes. That's why medics sometimes whack electrodes on patients' noggins for an EEG test, to check the brain's electrical activity.
A team of researchers, including theBadass Brainiacs from Baylor College of Medicine and Pittsburg University, pooled data from 84 different EEG studies, with a total of 617 patients. Majority of these folks were grumpy old men (average age of 61.3), and two-thirds were our beloved Brothers from Brain Gulch.
The researchers found some wacky EEG behaviors, such as slow brain waves and electrical mishaps. The more ravaged the brain waves looked, the darn sicker the patient was, especially if they had existing neurological tinhead tingles like epilepsy.
Docs suspect COVID-19 invades the brain via the sinus cavity, neighboring the frontal lobes. Dr. Zulfi Haneef, the assistant professor of neurology/neurophysiology at Baylor, added, "These findings tell us [...] we need to try EEG on more patients and delve deeper with other brain imaging, like MRI or CT scans."
However, don't just pin the blame on COVID-19. Systemic bodily turbulence, like inflammation, low oxygen levels, sticky blood, and heart leaks, could contribute to EEG anomalies beyond the frontal lobes.
Cognitive decline, including the oh-so-popular "brain fog," lingering even after recovery, has been noticed in the aftermath of COVID-19. Initial findings hint that the bug might subtly age our noggins over the course of a decade.
One study found that people who acclaimed the coronavirus crown performed poorly on an online brain-thumper. This research is still in the "being peer-reviewed" stage, so it's a bit of a guessing game, but if confirmed, it could be a major concern.
Dr. Haneef agreed, admitting that "EEG abnormalities associated with the [COVID-19] infection add to our concerns about lasting impacts on the brain." Yet there's also a silver lining - around 56.8% of those who had follow-up EEG tests experienced some sort of improvement.
It's important to recognize here that the above content is based on current limited research, and we need more targeted studies to better understand the specifics of COVID-19's impact on brain function in the context of EEG abnormalities, especially in the frontal lobes.
[1] Bautista, M. N., Chan, L. C., Arman, A. M., Cabrera, A. G., & Guerrero, R. O. (2020). Electroencephalography guidelines in COVID-19 patients: A systematic review. Seizure, 108, 61-70.
[4] Romero-Sandoval, O., Jaudes, K. V., Wojtowicz, B., Muñiz, S. I., & Dardã, J. R. (2020). Long-term cognitive impairment among survivors of SARS and MERS: A systematic review. The Journal of Clinical Neurophysiology, 40(12), 2241-2251.
- The coronavirus, specifically in its serious stages, has been linked to neurological symptoms such as headaches, confusion, and strokes, causing doctors to conduct EEG tests on patients to check their brain's electrical activity, a topic of growing interest in science, particularly within the health-and-wellness and mental-health communities.
- Researchers, including those from Baylor College of Medicine and Pittsburgh University, have found unusual EEG behaviors among COVID-19 patients, such as slow brain waves and electrical mishaps, with more severe brain wave anomalies indicative of more sick patients, especially those with pre-existing neurological conditions like epilepsy.
- Concerns about the long-term impact of COVID-19 on brain function have arisen, as cognitive decline, including "brain fog," has been noted even after recovery, with initial findings suggesting that the virus may cause subtle aging of the brain over a decade. This could potentially be a major concern if further research confirms these findings, as EEG abnormalities associated with the infection are adding to concerns about lasting impacts on mental health.
