Assessing functional connectivity differences and work-related fatigue in surviving COVID-negative patients

Area of Science:

• Neuroscience
• Radiology
• Infectious Diseases

Background:

• Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) can impact the central nervous system (CNS), potentially causing cerebrovascular abnormalities.
• The long-term effects of COVID-19 on brain function, specifically functional connectivity (FC), remain largely uncharacterized in survivors.

Approach:

• Resting-state functional MRI (RS-fMRI) was employed to assess brain FC in 38 COVID-19 survivors and 31 healthy controls.
• Independent Component Analysis (ICA) and dual regression techniques were utilized for FC estimation.
• Fatigue levels were quantitatively assessed and correlated with neuroimaging findings.

Key Points:

• COVID-19 survivors exhibited significantly enhanced FC in the basal ganglia and precuneus networks compared to controls (p < 0.05).
• Reduced FC was observed in the language network of COVID-19 survivors (p < 0.05).
• COVID-19 patients reported higher fatigue levels, with a negative correlation found between precuneus FC and fatigue scores (Spearman's ρ = -0.47, p = 0.001).

Conclusions:

• COVID-19 survivors display distinct alterations in brain functional connectivity, particularly within the basal ganglia, precuneus, and language networks.
• The observed changes in FC, especially in the precuneus network and its association with the left parietal lobe, may underlie persistent fatigue experienced by COVID-19 survivors.
• These findings highlight the potential for neuroimaging to identify and understand neurological sequelae of COVID-19.