A recent study led by UCL researchers has found that people living with long COVID and experiencing anosmia show different brain activity patterns compared to those who have recovered their sense of smell or never had COVID-19. The observational study used MRI scans and discovered reduced brain activity and impaired communication between the orbitofrontal cortex and the pre-frontal cortex in people with long COVID anosmia.
The research used MRI scanning to compare the brain activity of people with long COVID who lost their sense of smell, those whose smell had returned to normal after COVID infection, and people who had never tested positive for, the observational study found that people with long COVID smell loss had reduced brain activity and impaired communication between two parts of the brain that process important smell information: the orbitofrontal cortex and the pre-frontal cortex.
Dr. Jed Wingrove the lead author of the study, said: “Persistent loss of smell is just one way long COVID is still impacting people’s quality of life – smell is something we take for granted, but it guides us in lots of ways and is closely tied to our overall wellbeing. Our study gives reassurance that, for the majority of people whose sense of smell comes back, there are no permanent changes to brain activity.
Researchers say their findings also suggest that the brains of people with long COVID smell loss might be compensating for this lost sense by boosting connections with other sensory regions: their brains had increased activity between the parts of the brain that process smell and areas that process sight .
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