ArticleScientific reports2024
Microstructural brain abnormalities, fatigue, and cognitive dysfunction after mild COVID-19.
Article in Scientific reports, 2024. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 25 papers, 5 of them syntheses that pooled it.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
25 citing papers in PubMed, 5 syntheses or guidelines pooled it, 34 citations in OpenAlex.
- Brain microstructural alterations in COVID-19: a systematic review of diffusion weighted imaging studies.Brain imaging and behavior · 2026Pooled it
- Central Nervous System Alterations in Individuals with Long COVID: A Systematic Review.Revista da Sociedade Brasileira de Medicina Tropical · 2026Pooled it
- [Cognition and Long COVID: A PRISMA Systematic Review of Longitudinal Studies].Revista de neurologia · 2025Pooled it
- Pooled it
- Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis of Clinically Relevant Executive Functions Tests Performance after COVID-19.Behavioural neurology · 2023Pooled it
- Functional brain abnormalities in post COVID-19 condition and their relationship with cognition.Scientific reports · 2025Trial
- A digital intervention for cognitive deficits following COVID-19: a randomized clinical trial.Neuropsychopharmacology : official publication of the American College of Neuropsychopharmacology · 2024Trial
- Transcutaneous electrical nerve stimulation for fibromyalgia-like syndrome in patients with Long-COVID: a pilot randomized clinical trial.Scientific reports · 2024Trial
- Brain dynamics of attentional, default-mode and limbic networks are disrupted at rest in post-COVID-19 syndrome.Brain, behavior, & immunity - health · 2026Article
- Cognition and Long COVID: a Review.Current neurology and neuroscience reports · 2026Review
- The Prevalence of Sleep Disturbances and Anxiety Among Croatian University Students: Possible Association with Lifestyle Factors and COVID-19.Journal of clinical medicine · 2026Article
- Brain connectivity and its relation to cognitive function in patients with post-COVID 19 condition after mild infection.Scientific reports · 2026Article
- Reduced cortical brain perfusion following COVID-19 infection: impact of COVID-19 severity and relation to memory performance.Frontiers in human neuroscience · 2026Article
- Physical Symptoms and Neurocognitive Complaints in Long COVID: Associations with Gender, Age, Education, and Clinical Factors.Brain sciences · 2025Article
- Distinct white matter alteration patterns in post-infectious and gradual onset chronic fatigue syndrome revealed by diffusion MRI.Scientific reports · 2025Article
- Resilience of Neural Networks Underlying the Stroop Effect in the Aftermath of Severe COVID-19: fMRI Pilot Study.Brain sciences · 2025Article
- Cognitive Slowing, Dysfunction in Verbal Working Memory, Divided Attention and Response Inhibition in Post COVID-19 Condition in Young Adults.Life (Basel, Switzerland) · 2025Article
- Neurological post-COVID syndrome is associated with substantial impairment of verbal short-term and working memory.Scientific reports · 2025Article
- Structural brain changes in post-COVID condition and its relationship with cognitive impairment.Brain communications · 2025Article
- Posthospitalization COVID-19 cognitive deficits at 1 year are global and associated with elevated brain injury markers and gray matter volume reduction.Nature medicine · 2025Article
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
27 authors at 2 institutions in 1 country.
Funding
Abstract
Although some studies have shown neuroimaging and neuropsychological alterations in post-COVID-19 patients, fewer combined neuroimaging and neuropsychology evaluations of individuals who presented a mild acute infection. Here we investigated cognitive dysfunction and brain changes in a group of mildly infected individuals. We conducted a cross-sectional study of 97 consecutive subjects (median age of 41 years) without current or history of psychiatric symptoms (including anxiety and depression) after a mild infection, with a median of 79 days (and mean of 97 days) after diagnosis of COVID-19. We performed semi-structured interviews, neurological examinations, 3T-MRI scans, and neuropsychological assessments. For MRI analyses, we included a group of non-infected 77 controls. The MRI study included white matter (WM) investigation with diffusion tensor images (DTI) and functional connectivity with resting-state functional MRI (RS-fMRI). The patients reported memory loss (36%), fatigue (31%) and headache (29%). The quantitative analyses confirmed symptoms of fatigue (83% of participants), excessive somnolence (35%), impaired phonemic verbal fluency (21%), impaired verbal categorical fluency (13%) and impaired logical memory immediate recall (16%). The WM analyses with DTI revealed higher axial diffusivity values in post-infected patients compared to controls. Compared to controls, there were no significant differences in the functional connectivity of the posterior cingulum cortex. There were no significant correlations between neuropsychological scores and neuroimaging features (including DTI and RS-fMRI). Our results suggest persistent cognitive impairment and subtle white matter abnormalities in individuals mildly infected without anxiety or depression symptoms. The longitudinal analyses will clarify whether these alterations are temporary or permanent.
Indexed as
Identifiers
What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.