Abstract:
Background: Recovery after SARS-CoV-2 infection is extremely variable, with some individuals recovering quickly, and others experiencing persistent long-term symptoms or developing new symptoms after the acute phase of infection, including fatigue, poor concentration, impaired attention, or memory deficits. Many existing studies reporting cognitive deficits associated with SARS-CoV-2 infection are limited by the exclusive use of self-reported measures or a lack of adequate comparison groups.
Methods: Forty-five participants, ages 18-70, (11 Long-COVID, 14 COVID, and 20 No-COVID) underwent behavioral testing with the NIH Toolbox Neuro-Quality of Life survey and selected psychometric tests, including a flanker interference task and the d2 Test of Attention.
Results: We found greater self-reported anxiety, apathy, fatigue, emotional dyscontrol, sleep disturbance and cognitive dysfunction in COVID compared No-COVID groups. After categorizing COVID patients according to self-reported concentration problems, we observed declining performance patterns in multiple attention measures across No-COVID controls, COVID and Long-COVID groups. COVID participants, compared to No-COVID controls, exhibited worse performance on NIH Toolbox assessments, including the Eriksen Flanker, Nine-Hole Pegboard and Auditory Verbal Learning tests.
Conclusion: This study provides convergent evidence that previous SARS-CoV-2 infection is associated with impairments in sustained attention, processing speed, self-reported fatigue and concentration. The finding that some patients have cognitive and visuomotor dysfunction in the absence of self-reported problems suggests that SARS-CoV-2 infection can have unexpected and persistent subclinical consequences.
Source: O’Connor EE, Rednam N, O’Brien R, O’Brien S, Rock P, Levine A, Zeffiro TA. Effects of SARS-CoV-2 Infection on Attention, Memory, and Sensorimotor Performance. medRxiv [Preprint]. 2022 Sep 23:2022.09.22.22280222. doi: 10.1101/2022.09.22.22280222. PMID: 36172134; PMCID: PMC9516858. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9516858/ (Full text)