'Brain fog' from long Covid has a considerable impact on memory.
Long Covid 'brain fog' has a lasting impact on cognitive function
A study that assessed over 140,000 people in the summer of 2022 has revealed that the virus has an impact on cognitive and memory abilities that could last for over a year after the initial infection.
People with unresolved symptoms that had persisted for over 12 weeks had significant performance deficits equating to six IQ points in tasks involving memory and reasoning, demonstrating that 'brain fog' has a quantifiable impact.
Professor Adam Hampshire, author of the study and a cognitive neuroscientist at Imperial College London, said: "It's not been at all clear what brain fog actually is. As a symptom it's been reported on quite extensively, but what our study shows is that brain fog can correlate with objectively measurable deficits. That is quite an important finding."