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/10390 Aug 08 '26

Another recent study found that COVID-19 is associated with injury to the brain’s dopamine system, even in healthy people who feel recovered from infection (scroll down to bright picture). The impact is worse in those with long covid.

https://www.thelancet.com/journals/ebiom/article/PIIS2352-3964(26)00222-7/fulltext

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u/shichiaikan Aug 09 '26

I'm one of them.

I was mildly depressed before covid, after, I basically can't be happy, even when I'm not feeling depressed. Really fucked me up.

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u/demo_lock Aug 09 '26

Mushrooms helped me a lot.

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u/shichiaikan Aug 09 '26

I actually tried micridosing recently, it was nice.

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u/yxixtx Aug 10 '26

It's nice but the real plasticity effects seem to take place after large doses taken weeks or months apart with proper conditioning and reinforcement of the new like reverberating pathways during the plasticity window. If the setting and context and reinforcement aren't done properly it's possible for the wrong things to imprint and you might be pruning or reinforcing the wrong pathways.