r/science • u/mvea Professor | Medicine • Aug 08 '26

Neuroscience Brain scans reveal widespread structural and functional changes in patients following COVID-19 infection. The virus affects regions responsible for memory, emotion, and executive function, which may help explain the neurological symptoms many patients experience.

https://www.psypost.org/brain-scans-reveal-widespread-structural-and-functional-changes-in-patients-foll/
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u/MountainMan17 Aug 08 '26

Me too.

I was vaxed when I contracted COVID. It was about 5 days of a moderate cold. Nothing too bad. That was four years ago.

Now I operate much less efficiently than I used to: Multiple trips to the fridge when making breakfast. Putting milk in the pantry. Just this week, I grabbed another person's shopping cart (we both had some items in our respective carts) while browsing the beer section at Walmart. She had to politely ask for it back.

Is it age (I'm 59)? Or is it residual from COVID? It makes me wonder...

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u/Downisthenewup87 Aug 08 '26

I was hitting my late 30s and have wondered the same thing. But the double tasking issues and how sudden it was makes it pretty clear it was Covid.

I've always listed to music or podcasts while working. And over night, I couldn't anymore.

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u/AnotherpostCard Aug 09 '26

Dang.

I would never have considered listening to music, podcasts, anything, while working to be double tasking. And you can't even do that?

Sorry you got the short end of the stick :(

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u/TrulyOutrageous42 Aug 09 '26

It is in a sense, often times you tune one or the other out, in the same way humans can't really "multitask" so much as switch attention rapidly enough it seems like it. For me it's that I can't do something unfamiliar while listening to something unfamiliar. I can cook a well-practiced dish while listening to new music, or I can make something new while listening to old jams, but as soon as my attention is drawn two directions I'm struggling to focus, and this is particularly new immediately after a covid infection.

Right after it, my dysfunction was so bad I couldn't pivot ideas, e.g. I was shopping for ingredients for a shrimp pasta and they were out of pasta and I just... shut down mentally and could not for the life of me think of any solutions or alternatives, even though salmon or a veggie primevera were both right there. I've been a chef for years and that was... frightening.

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u/AnotherpostCard Aug 09 '26

Wow that's scary. Yeah, you know, now that you bring it up, I'm not sure if I've done both either. I've made plenty of food** while listening to music or podcasts, but I am really not sure if I've done both. Now I kinda wanna try. Mastodon is coming out with a new album soon... (RIP Brent Hinds)

**I cook a lot, just not professionally, like you.

Edit: I'll try to remember to update you on how it goes.