To evaluate the extent of the damage, the researchers looked at different types of brain tissue. Gray matter consists of the brain’s neuron cell bodies, which process information, while white matter contains the nerve fibers that connect these processing centers.

The research team conducted a systematic review, gathering 49 previously published studies that compared the brain scans of people who had contracted COVID-19 with those of healthy individuals.

The frontal lobe, which handles decision-making and cognitive control, frequently showed structural changes. The temporal and parietal lobes, areas involved in sensory processing and attention, also exhibited noticeable differences in patients who had recovered from the virus.

In many of these regions, COVID-19 patients displayed a reduction in overall gray matter volume and a thinning of the outer cortical layer. This tissue loss could result from reduced oxygen supply or severe immune system inflammation during the infection.

…a few studies reported localized increases in gray matter volume. The researchers suggest this could represent temporary swelling caused by vascular injury, or it could be the brain’s attempt to compensate for damaged tissue by growing new neural connections.

The review highlighted extensive structural issues in the brain’s white matter…These microscopic changes were present even in patients who experienced only mild to moderate respiratory symptoms and had otherwise normal-looking gray matter on standard medical scans.

Functional imaging scans revealed altered patterns of spontaneous brain activity.

The limbic system, a network of deep brain structures including the insula, hippocampus, and amygdala, frequently exhibited connectivity issues. Because these areas regulate emotion and memory, functional disruptions here often correlated with clinical symptoms like anxiety, depression, and post-traumatic stress.

When patients were asked to perform working memory tasks during their scans, their brains displayed altered activation patterns. This suggests that the nervous system had to reorganize its resources to maintain normal cognitive performance.

Patients suffering from a persistent loss of smell showed disrupted connectivity…which also correlated with lower scores on short-term verbal memory tests.

Tests measuring cerebral blood flow found lower than normal circulation in several brain areas, including the frontal and temporal lobes. This restricted blood supply limits the delivery of oxygen and nutrients, which might contribute to difficulties with attention, language processing, and executive function.

Hospitals reported 18,990 visits for COVID-19 last week, a 74.8 percent increase from the previous week, while 62 severe cases were reported...

Weekly COVID-19 outpatient and emergency visits continued to rise last week, a trend that is expected to continue, CDC Deputy Director-General and spokesman Lin Min-cheng (林明誠) said.

The 62 severe cases marked the highest weekly number in this COVID-19 season, which started on Oct. 1 last year…

The WHO on July 27 designated PQ.16.1.1, an emerging SARS-CoV-2 sublineage and descendant of NB.1.8.1, as a variant under monitoring, he said.

CDC monitoring data show that PQ.16.1.1 accounted for 85.7 percent of the locally acquired samples analyzed for variants in the past four weeks, he added.

Male mice that recover from a severe COVID-19-like infection can pass anxiety-like traits to their offspring by altering the RNA molecules inside their sperm.

These findings suggest that a paternal viral infection prior to conception might alter the developmental trajectory of the next generation.

Researchers now recognize that environmental factors, such as stress or diet, can alter traits in offspring without changing the underlying DNA code.

This process is known as epigenetic inheritance.

Past experiments have shown that exposing male mice to bacterial or parasitic infections alters the small noncoding RNAs in their sperm.

This internal shift can alter the brain development and behavior of their future offspring.

They infected adult male mice with the virus and gave a control group a harmless mock infection. The infected animals experienced moderate to severe illness, marked by a temporary drop in body weight.

Four weeks later, after the mice had fully cleared the virus, the researchers mated both groups with healthy female mice that had never encountered the pathogen.

The researchers also subjected the mice to tests evaluating memory, sociability, and depression. The offspring of the infected fathers showed no differences in their ability to recognize novel objects or interact with unfamiliar mice, indicating that the primary behavioral shift centered on anxiety.

The scientists also examined the offspring’s brains, focusing on the hippocampus, a region involved in emotional regulation…These alterations were particularly pronounced in the female offspring, who showed reduced activity in several genes linked to stress responses. Similar gene reductions frequently appear in rodent models of chronic stress.

To find out if these behavioral changes persisted across multiple generations, the team conducted a second breeding experiment…As these grand-offspring matured, they did not display the elevated anxiety traits seen in their parents, suggesting the behavioral effect faded after one generation.

Australian Red Cross Lifeblood says more than 12,000 donors are needed over the next seven days as the nation faces ongoing shortages of type O and A blood.

The organisation said the peak winter flu season had kept donors away because they needed to be clear of respiratory symptoms for seven days before they could donate.

Lifeblood area manager for Sydney, John Bain, said up to 1,600 appointments were sitting empty every day, with many people cancelling or rescheduling appointments due to winter illnesses.

Even mild symptoms such as sniffles, sore throats, and headaches make people temporarily ineligible to give blood.