ArticleBrain, behavior, & immunity - health2025
Altered brain tissue microstructure and neurochemical profiles in long COVID and recovered COVID-19 individuals: A multimodal MRI study.
Article in Brain, behavior, & immunity - health, 2025. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 3 papers.
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Who cites it
3 citing papers in PubMed.
- Investigation of BOLD signal intensities in long COVID patients using 7T functional MRI.Brain, behavior, & immunity - health · 2026Article
- Vascular inflammation in neuropsychiatric long COVID.Brain, behavior, & immunity - health · 2026Article
- Microstructural alterations in brain tissue of ME/CFS and long COVID using diffusion tensor imaging and diffusion kurtosis imaging.Frontiers in medicine · 2026Article
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Authors and funding
4 authors.
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Abstract
Background: Diverse neurological symptoms are experienced by long COVID and COVID-19 recovered individuals. However, the long-term effects of SARS-CoV-2 in the brain of both groups are underexplored. This study aimed to investigate changes in tissue microstructural and brain neurochemical levels in long COVID and recovered COVID-19 patients compared to healthy controls. Methods: We recruited 47 participants (long COVID = 19, COVID-recovered healthy controls = 12, and healthy controls without COVID-19 infection = 16) who underwent 3T MRI scans. We acquired T1 and T2 weighted images to assess myelin signal, diffusion weighted images to assess tissue microstructure, and magnetic resonance spectroscopy data to estimate brain neurochemical levels. Findings: Our multimodal MRI study showed altered T1w/T2w signal between long COVID vs COVID-recovered-healthy controls, long COVID vs healthy controls, and COVID-recovered-healthy controls vs healthy controls. Furthermore, T1w/T2w signal intensity was significantly correlated with physical and cognitive function. Diffusion weighted imaging also showed altered tissue microstructure in these three group comparisons. However, brain neurochemicals were only significantly different between long COVID vs COVID-recovered-healthy controls. Interpretation: This is one of the first studies to report different myelin signal and brain neurochemical changes between long COVID, COVID-recovered-healthy controls, and healthy controls without SARS-CoV-2 infection. These brain changes provide compelling evidence for the long-term effects of SARS-CoV-2 on brain function.
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