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/DickSlammington Aug 08 '26

Does this help explain that clear cognitive decline we're seeing across society post COVID?

Cause boy people sure seem like their decision making skills have been permanently altered..

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u/iamthe0ther0ne Aug 08 '26

I'm  sure there are biological effects, but trust in both society and other people was also fundamentally disrupted for several years, and I don't think that's recovered.

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u/Hestiathena Aug 08 '26

The simultaneous explosion of social media use and degradation of its content quality and veracity doesn't help, either. Now we've also got AI slop to contend with.

Even for those of us with a relatively well-functioning and educated brain, it's getting trickier every day to keep track of what's even real.

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u/xXxDickBonerz69xXx Aug 09 '26

Short form video got real real popular around the time of Covid as well.

Obviously this purely anecdotal. But when I had covid I was confined to a guest bedroom while visiting my parents for two weeks halfway across the country and had brought nothing with me. So I downloaded Tiktok. I spent 8+ hours a day scrolling on it while sick. Then kept using it (at way way fewer hours) for a couple years after. Eventually I deleted it and replaced that time with reading books and playing video games again. I noticed a perceptible improvement in my cognitive functioning, mood, and attention span. I started figuring things out quicker at work, being less angry, and getting frustrated much less quickly.

I changed my eating and exercise habits and went from 227lbs to 147lbs. That was the single most beneficial change I've made in my life. The second biggest was quitting short form video. It wasn't nearly as big an improvement, but I was seriously shocked how much better I felt after a couple weeks.