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A new study is shedding light on how COVID-19 affects the brain. Researchers from the University of Oxford found that even mild cases of COVID-19 can cause brain damage by comparing brain scans of people before and after they were infected with those of people who did not contract COVID-19.
They found that those who were sick had a reduction in their brain volume and performed worse on cognitive tests than those who did not have COVID-19. Most of the people with COVID also lost their sense of smell, and the researchers noted that the damage was in areas of the brain that control the sense of smell.
Of the patients involved in the study, just 15 needed hospitalization. The researchers said that those 15 people had more brain damage than those who had mild cases of COVID-19.
The researchers said they don't know if the brain damage is permanent and that additional studies must be conducted to determine the long-term effects of COVID-19 on the brain.
"It is brain damage, but it is possible that it is reversible," Gwenaëlle Douaud, an associate professor at the Nuffield Department of Clinical Neurosciences at Oxford, said. "But it is still relatively scary because it was in mildly infected people."