🕷️ Crawler Inspector

URL Lookup

Direct Parameter Lookup

Raw Queries and Responses

1. Shard Calculation

Query:

Response:

Calculated Shard: 39 (from laksa014)

2. Crawled Status Check

Query:

curl -X POST \
  'http://laksa039.int.ahrefs:8124/' \
  -H 'Content-Type: text/plain' \
  -H 'X-ClickHouse-Database: crawler3' \
  -H 'Authorization: Basic YXBpOg==' \
  -d 'SELECT getAhrefsURLFromUnparsed(src_unparsed) AS found_url, ifNull(toUnixTimestamp(download_stamp), 0) AS crawl_time, ifNull(toUnixTimestamp(props_url_first_seen), 0) AS first_indexed_time, download_http_code AS http_code, src_unparsed AS src_unparsed, src_root_hash AS src_root_hash, history_drop_reason AS history_drop_reason, meta_title AS meta_title, meta_descriptions AS meta_descriptions, attrs_boilerpipe_text AS attrs_boilerpipe_text, attrs_markdown AS attrs_markdown, attrs_readable_markdown AS attrs_readable_markdown, meta_canonical AS meta_canonical FROM crawler3.page_info_local FINAL PREWHERE (src_root_hash, src_unparsed) IN ((getAhrefsRootHashFromUnparsed(getAhrefsUnparsedNoserviceFromURL(\'https://time.com/6294762/how-covid-19-affects-brain-memory/\')), getAhrefsUnparsedNoserviceFromURL(\'https://time.com/6294762/how-covid-19-affects-brain-memory/\'))) FORMAT JSONEachRow'

Response:

{"found_url":"https:\/\/time.com\/6294762\/how-covid-19-affects-brain-memory\/","crawl_time":1775509741,"first_indexed_time":1689605685,"http_code":200,"src_unparsed":"com,time!\/6294762\/how-covid-19-affects-brain-memory\/ s443","src_root_hash":"9797552172251460839","history_drop_reason":null,"meta_title":"COVID-19 Can Affect the Brain Even Long After an Infection","meta_descriptions":["COVID-19 can have profound effects on the brain, leading to neurocognitive symptoms like brain fog, memory loss, and even dementia."],"attrs_boilerpipe_text":"Early in the COVID-19 pandemic, doctors started to notice something striking. For what was originally described as a respiratory virus, SARS-CoV-2 seemed to have a strong\neffect on the brain\n, causing everything from\nloss of taste and smell\nand brain fog to, in serious cases,\nstroke\n.\nNYU Langone Health, a New York city research hospital, started\ncollating those anecdotes\nin hopes of better understanding how the virus affects the brain and nervous system. Years later, the project has morphed from focusing solely on acute symptoms to also tracking the long-term neurologic issues that some\npeople with Long COVID experience\n, says program director Dr. Sharon Meropol.\nThe “Holy Grail” question now, Meropol says, is what’s going on in the brains of COVID-19 patients—and how to reverse the damage.\nGray matters\nIf you were to look at the brain of someone infected by certain viruses, like rabies, you would see “virus teeming everywhere. It’s black and white” that the brain is infected, says Dr. Avindra Nath, clinical director of the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke (NINDS).\nMore from TIME\nWith SARS-CoV-2, there’s more gray area. Early in the pandemic, Nath and his colleagues scanned and physically analyzed the brains of 13 people who died from COVID-19. They didn’t find the SARS-CoV-2 virus in those brains—but they did find significant damage to their blood vessels, which were coated with antibodies. It looked to Nath like the body’s immune system had gone haywire in response to the virus, causing it to attack its own blood vessels and setting off a cascade of effects that led to significant inflammation in the brain, potentially culminating in fatal damage to the part that controls breathing.\nIn people who survive COVID-19, brain inflammation may also explain years-long symptoms like brain fog and memory loss—though “we don’t know for sure,” Nath says.\nDr. Lara Jehi, who researches COVID-19 and the brain at the Cleveland Clinic, also points to inflammation as a possible trigger for COVID-19’s neurologic symptoms. She’s found\nevidence of abnormal inflammation\nin people with chronic post-COVID headaches. And in\na 2021 study\n, Jehi and her colleagues compared the brains of people with Long COVID and Alzheimer’s disease. “We found many areas of overlap between the two, and these areas of overlap centered on…inflammation in the brain and microscopic injuries to the blood vessels,” she says.\nGoing into that study, Jehi says, her team wanted to determine whether the SARS-CoV-2 virus was entering the brain and causing damage directly, or triggering an immune response that led to brain changes. Their findings pointed to the latter—but researchers still haven’t ruled out the possibility that the virus has direct effects on the brain.\nVirus in the brain\nSince Nath’s brain-scanning project early in the pandemic, other researchers have found the virus in the brains of people who died from COVID-19.\nFor\na 2022 paper\nin\nNature\n, researchers analyzed brain tissue of 11 people who had COVID-19 when they died. In all but one of those individuals, the researchers found the virus’ genetic material in central-nervous-system tissue—which, they wrote, “prov[ed] definitively that SARS-CoV-2 is capable of infecting and replicating within the human brain.”\nTo Nath, however, that’s still an open question, and one worthy of more research. His team has\ncontinued to study the brains\nof COVID-19 patients and has yet to find concrete evidence of the SARS-CoV-2 virus in those organs. In\none instance\n, he says, they found viral proteins—but not the full virus—in biopsied tissue from someone who had COVID-19 at the time they were undergoing brain surgery for epilepsy. Researchers behind\nan April 2023 study\nnot yet been peer-reviewed also found SARS-CoV-2 spike proteins—which are found on the virus’ surface and allow it to enter human cells—in the brains of people who died from COVID-19.\nBut the research is “inconsistent,” Nath says. “Some have found it, some have not, and some people who have found it, have found very small amounts. There’s still a gap in knowledge there.”\nDr. Wes Ely, who researches brain disease at Vanderbilt University Medical Center, says he’s convinced SARS-CoV-2 can attack the “support cells” of the brain, or those ensure neurons are able to keep the brain and body functioning normally. Damaging these support cells, Ely says, can kick off a domino effect that leads to tissue death in the brain.\nBut, Ely says, “almost certainly there are multiple processes going on”—it could be that the virus both directly affects the brain and causes changes to the immune system that lead to neurocognitive issues. “We’re not looking for a magic bullet that will solve all these problems” at once, he says.\nWhile there may not be a single solution, that doesn’t mean there’s no solution. Ely has found that “cognitive rehab,” a process of rebuilding the brain’s function through targeted mental exercises, can help people who develop similar cognitive decline after stays in the intensive-care unit. That approach could be risky for people with Long COVID, many of whom experience\nworsened symptoms after mental or physical exertion\n, Ely says—but changing the immune system’s function in hopes of reducing inflammation in the brains of people with Long COVID is another promising route.\nNINDS is\ncurrently enrolling patients\nfor a study on immunotherapy as a potential treatment for neurologic Long COVID. That approach is particularly exciting, Nath says, because it entails a therapy that is already used to treat a range of autoimmune and neurologic conditions—so if it proves effective, it could be rolled out to Long COVID patients relatively quickly.\nSome preliminary research also suggests blood-thinning drugs may help breakup tiny “\nmicroclots\n” in the blood that are linked to systemic inflammation, potentially relieving Long COVID symptoms including fatigue, brain fog, and difficulty concentrating.\nAs of now, there are no proven therapies for people with Long COVID symptoms, neurologic or otherwise. But Ely says he’s optimistic that COVID-related brain changes are reversible—one way or another. “The brain is incredibly neuroplastic,” he says, “and it can do amazing things.”","attrs_markdown":"[Skip to Content](https:\/\/time.com\/6294762\/how-covid-19-affects-brain-memory\/#maincontent)\n\n- Menu\n  \n  Close\n\n[Subscribe](https:\/\/time.com\/subscribe-header-time\/)\n\n- [Health](https:\/\/time.com\/section\/health\/)\n- [COVID-19](https:\/\/time.com\/tag\/covid-19\/)\n# Scientists Are Just Beginning to Understand COVID-19's Effect On the Brain\n[ADD TIME ON GOOGLE](https:\/\/www.google.com\/preferences\/source?q=https:\/\/time.com)\n\nShow me more content from TIME on Google Search\n\n![Jamie Ducharme](https:\/\/gcp-na-images.contentstack.com\/v3\/assets\/bltea6093859af6183b\/bltee90d03f171c21c6\/698a0b45db2987baea2650e7\/200115_Time_Headshots_Day451258.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1%3A1)\n\nby\n\n[Jamie Ducharme](https:\/\/time.com\/author\/jamie-ducharme\/)\n\nDucharme is a contributor to TIME.\n\nJul 17, 2023 2:50 PM CUT\n\n![Coronavirus in the brain](https:\/\/gcp-na-images.contentstack.com\/v3\/assets\/bltea6093859af6183b\/bltbb62707fadf7c03e\/698a3eb347ca3810bb3baf6d\/covid-19-brain.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=3%3A2)\n\nDigital generated image of cut out male head multi layered with covid-19 cells inside on blue background.\n\nDigital generated image of cut out male head multi layered with covid-19 cells inside on blue background.Getty Image\n\n![Jamie Ducharme](https:\/\/gcp-na-images.contentstack.com\/v3\/assets\/bltea6093859af6183b\/bltee90d03f171c21c6\/698a0b45db2987baea2650e7\/200115_Time_Headshots_Day451258.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1%3A1)\n\nby\n\n[Jamie Ducharme](https:\/\/time.com\/author\/jamie-ducharme\/)\n\nDucharme is a contributor to TIME.\n\nJul 17, 2023 2:50 PM CUT\n\nEarly in the COVID-19 pandemic, doctors started to notice something striking. For what was originally described as a respiratory virus, SARS-CoV-2 seemed to have a strong [effect on the brain](https:\/\/time.com\/5896393\/coronavirus-neurologic-symptoms\/ \"undefined\"), causing everything from [loss of taste and smell](https:\/\/time.com\/6113909\/covid-19-smell-taste-loss\/ \"undefined\") and brain fog to, in serious cases, [stroke](https:\/\/healthcare.utah.edu\/healthfeed\/2022\/01\/covid-19-increasing-stroke-risks-people-of-all-ages \"undefined\").\n\nNYU Langone Health, a New York city research hospital, started [collating those anecdotes](https:\/\/med.nyu.edu\/departments-institutes\/population-health\/divisions-sections-centers\/biostatistics\/research\/neuro-databank-biobank \"undefined\") in hopes of better understanding how the virus affects the brain and nervous system. Years later, the project has morphed from focusing solely on acute symptoms to also tracking the long-term neurologic issues that some [people with Long COVID experience](https:\/\/time.com\/6207214\/covid-19-brain-impact\/ \"undefined\"), says program director Dr. Sharon Meropol.\n\nThe list of neurocognitive issues that Meropol’s team and other researchers must track is extensive: [cognitive decline](https:\/\/jamanetwork.com\/journals\/jamanetworkopen\/fullarticle\/2785388 \"undefined\"), [changes in brain size and structure](https:\/\/www.nature.com\/articles\/s41586-022-04569-5 \"undefined\"), [depression and suicidal thinking](https:\/\/time.com\/6186429\/suicide-long-covid\/ \"undefined\"), [tremors](https:\/\/www.medrxiv.org\/content\/10.1101\/2023.06.19.23291598v1 \"undefined\"), [seizures](https:\/\/www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov\/pmc\/articles\/PMC8053221\/ \"undefined\"), [memory loss](https:\/\/www.frontiersin.org\/articles\/10.3389\/fnagi.2022.804937\/full \"undefined\"), and new or [worsened dementia](https:\/\/covid19.nih.gov\/news-and-stories\/rapid-progression-dementia-following-covid-19 \"undefined\") have all been linked to previous SARS-CoV-2 infections. In some cases, these longer-term problems occur [even in patients with relatively mild COVID-19](https:\/\/www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov\/pmc\/articles\/PMC8432319\/ \"undefined\").\n\nThe “Holy Grail” question now, Meropol says, is what’s going on in the brains of COVID-19 patients—and how to reverse the damage.\n\n## Gray matters\nIf you were to look at the brain of someone infected by certain viruses, like rabies, you would see “virus teeming everywhere. It’s black and white” that the brain is infected, says Dr. Avindra Nath, clinical director of the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke (NINDS).\n***\n### More from TIME\n\nAdvertisement\n\n***\nWith SARS-CoV-2, there’s more gray area. Early in the pandemic, Nath and his colleagues scanned and physically analyzed the brains of 13 people who died from COVID-19. They didn’t find the SARS-CoV-2 virus in those brains—but they did find significant damage to their blood vessels, which were coated with antibodies. It looked to Nath like the body’s immune system had gone haywire in response to the virus, causing it to attack its own blood vessels and setting off a cascade of effects that led to significant inflammation in the brain, potentially culminating in fatal damage to the part that controls breathing.\n\nIn people who survive COVID-19, brain inflammation may also explain years-long symptoms like brain fog and memory loss—though “we don’t know for sure,” Nath says.\n\nDr. Lara Jehi, who researches COVID-19 and the brain at the Cleveland Clinic, also points to inflammation as a possible trigger for COVID-19’s neurologic symptoms. She’s found [evidence of abnormal inflammation](https:\/\/pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov\/36945569\/ \"undefined\") in people with chronic post-COVID headaches. And in [a 2021 study](https:\/\/pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov\/34108016\/ \"undefined\"), Jehi and her colleagues compared the brains of people with Long COVID and Alzheimer’s disease. “We found many areas of overlap between the two, and these areas of overlap centered on…inflammation in the brain and microscopic injuries to the blood vessels,” she says.\n\nAdvertisement\n\nGoing into that study, Jehi says, her team wanted to determine whether the SARS-CoV-2 virus was entering the brain and causing damage directly, or triggering an immune response that led to brain changes. Their findings pointed to the latter—but researchers still haven’t ruled out the possibility that the virus has direct effects on the brain.\n\n## Virus in the brain\nSince Nath’s brain-scanning project early in the pandemic, other researchers have found the virus in the brains of people who died from COVID-19.\n\nFor [a 2022 paper](https:\/\/www.nature.com\/articles\/s41586-022-05542-y \"undefined\") in *Nature*, researchers analyzed brain tissue of 11 people who had COVID-19 when they died. In all but one of those individuals, the researchers found the virus’ genetic material in central-nervous-system tissue—which, they wrote, “prov\\[ed\\] definitively that SARS-CoV-2 is capable of infecting and replicating within the human brain.”\n\nTo Nath, however, that’s still an open question, and one worthy of more research. His team has [continued to study the brains](https:\/\/academic.oup.com\/brain\/article\/145\/7\/2555\/6621999 \"undefined\") of COVID-19 patients and has yet to find concrete evidence of the SARS-CoV-2 virus in those organs. In [one instance](https:\/\/www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov\/pmc\/articles\/PMC10065204\/ \"undefined\"), he says, they found viral proteins—but not the full virus—in biopsied tissue from someone who had COVID-19 at the time they were undergoing brain surgery for epilepsy. Researchers behind [an April 2023 study](https:\/\/www.biorxiv.org\/content\/10.1101\/2023.04.04.535604v1 \"undefined\") not yet been peer-reviewed also found SARS-CoV-2 spike proteins—which are found on the virus’ surface and allow it to enter human cells—in the brains of people who died from COVID-19.\n\nAdvertisement\n\nBut the research is “inconsistent,” Nath says. “Some have found it, some have not, and some people who have found it, have found very small amounts. There’s still a gap in knowledge there.”\n\nDr. Wes Ely, who researches brain disease at Vanderbilt University Medical Center, says he’s convinced SARS-CoV-2 can attack the “support cells” of the brain, or those ensure neurons are able to keep the brain and body functioning normally. Damaging these support cells, Ely says, can kick off a domino effect that leads to tissue death in the brain.\n\nBut, Ely says, “almost certainly there are multiple processes going on”—it could be that the virus both directly affects the brain and causes changes to the immune system that lead to neurocognitive issues. “We’re not looking for a magic bullet that will solve all these problems” at once, he says.\n\nWhile there may not be a single solution, that doesn’t mean there’s no solution. Ely has found that “cognitive rehab,” a process of rebuilding the brain’s function through targeted mental exercises, can help people who develop similar cognitive decline after stays in the intensive-care unit. That approach could be risky for people with Long COVID, many of whom experience [worsened symptoms after mental or physical exertion](https:\/\/time.com\/6215346\/covid-19-rest-helps\/ \"undefined\"), Ely says—but changing the immune system’s function in hopes of reducing inflammation in the brains of people with Long COVID is another promising route.\n\nAdvertisement\n\nNINDS is [currently enrolling patients](https:\/\/clinicalstudies.info.nih.gov\/protocoldetails.aspx?id=000711-N&&query= \"undefined\") for a study on immunotherapy as a potential treatment for neurologic Long COVID. That approach is particularly exciting, Nath says, because it entails a therapy that is already used to treat a range of autoimmune and neurologic conditions—so if it proves effective, it could be rolled out to Long COVID patients relatively quickly.\n\nSome preliminary research also suggests blood-thinning drugs may help breakup tiny “[microclots](https:\/\/time.com\/6238147\/microclots-long-covid\/ \"undefined\")” in the blood that are linked to systemic inflammation, potentially relieving Long COVID symptoms including fatigue, brain fog, and difficulty concentrating.\n\nAs of now, there are no proven therapies for people with Long COVID symptoms, neurologic or otherwise. But Ely says he’s optimistic that COVID-related brain changes are reversible—one way or another. “The brain is incredibly neuroplastic,” he says, “and it can do amazing things.”\n\n## Must-Reads from TIME\n- [‘Safe and sound’: How a U.S. Airman Shot Down in Iran Was Rescued From a Mountain Crevice](https:\/\/time.com\/article\/2026\/04\/05\/-safe-and-sound-how-a-u-s-airman-shot-down-in-iran-was-rescued-from-a-mountain-crevice\/?utm_rs=IL_GNBazf4RR9GSs3N-N37Btw)\n- [Iranian President Pens Open Letter to American People](https:\/\/time.com\/article\/2026\/04\/01\/iran-war-president-open-letter-american-people\/?utm_rs=IL_GNBazf4RR9GSs3N-N37Btw)\n- [What to Know About the Army Chief Hegseth Ousted—and the General Who’s Taking Over](https:\/\/time.com\/article\/2026\/04\/03\/hegseth-army-firings-chief-of-staff\/?utm_rs=IL_GNBazf4RR9GSs3N-N37Btw)\n- [What to Know About the 25th Amendment as Lawmakers Call for Trump’s Removal](https:\/\/time.com\/article\/2026\/04\/06\/25th-amendment-constitution-trump-war-iran-threat-insanity\/?utm_rs=IL_GNBazf4RR9GSs3N-N37Btw)\n- [Inside Trump's Search for a Way Out of the Iran War](https:\/\/time.com\/article\/2026\/04\/02\/trump-iran-off-ramp\/?utm_rs=IL_GNBazf4RR9GSs3N-N37Btw)\n- [Trump Calls Vance the ‘Fraud Czar.’ Here’s What We Know About the Role](https:\/\/time.com\/article\/2026\/04\/03\/trump-vance-fraud-czar\/?utm_rs=IL_GNBazf4RR9GSs3N-N37Btw)\n\n- [‘Safe and sound’: How a U.S. Airman Shot Down in Iran Was Rescued From a Mountain Crevice](https:\/\/time.com\/article\/2026\/04\/05\/-safe-and-sound-how-a-u-s-airman-shot-down-in-iran-was-rescued-from-a-mountain-crevice\/?utm_rs=IL_GNBazf4RR9GSs3N-N37Btw)\n- [Iranian President Pens Open Letter to American People](https:\/\/time.com\/article\/2026\/04\/01\/iran-war-president-open-letter-american-people\/?utm_rs=IL_GNBazf4RR9GSs3N-N37Btw)\n- [What to Know About the Army Chief Hegseth Ousted—and the General Who’s Taking Over](https:\/\/time.com\/article\/2026\/04\/03\/hegseth-army-firings-chief-of-staff\/?utm_rs=IL_GNBazf4RR9GSs3N-N37Btw)\n\nRead More\n\n## Sections\n- [Home](https:\/\/time.com\/)\n- [Politics](https:\/\/time.com\/section\/politics\/)\n- [Health](https:\/\/time.com\/section\/health\/)\n- [AI](https:\/\/time.com\/tag\/ai\/)\n- [World](https:\/\/time.com\/section\/world\/)\n- [Business](https:\/\/time.com\/section\/business\/)\n- [Science](https:\/\/time.com\/section\/science\/)\n\n- [Climate](https:\/\/time.com\/section\/climate\/)\n- [Ideas](https:\/\/time.com\/section\/ideas\/)\n- [Entertainment](https:\/\/time.com\/section\/entertainment\/)\n- [Sports](https:\/\/time.com\/section\/sports\/)\n- [Technology](https:\/\/time.com\/tag\/technology\/)\n- [Newsletters](https:\/\/time.com\/newsletters\/?source=TD_Footer_Link&utm_source_pg=web&utm_medium_pg=footer&utm_campaign_pg=footer&utm_content_pg=footer-inside-time)\n\n## More\n- [The TIME Vault](https:\/\/time.com\/vault\/)\n- [TIME Africa](https:\/\/africa.time.com\/)\n- [TIME France](https:\/\/www.timefrance.fr\/)\n- [TIME For Kids](https:\/\/www.timeforkids.com\/)\n- [TIME Futures](https:\/\/time.com\/collection\/time-co2-futures\/)\n\n- [TIME Studios](https:\/\/studios.time.com\/)\n- [Video](https:\/\/time.com\/collections\/time-video\/)\n- [Red Border](https:\/\/redborder.time.com\/)\n- [Supplied Partner Content](https:\/\/partnercontent.time.com\/)\n\n## About Us\n- [Our Mission](https:\/\/time.com\/about-time\/)\n- [Contact the Editors](mailto:feedback@time.com)\n- [Press Room](https:\/\/time.com\/section\/press-room\/)\n- [Media Kit](https:\/\/time.com\/mediakit\/)\n- [Reprints & Permissions](https:\/\/www.parsintl.com\/publication\/time)\n\n- [Masthead](https:\/\/time.com\/time-masthead\/)\n- [Careers](https:\/\/time.com\/join-time\/)\n- [Site Map](https:\/\/time.com\/sitemap.xml)\n- [Modern Slavery Statement](https:\/\/time.com\/modern-slavery-statement\/)\n\n## Your Subscriptions\n- [Subscribe](https:\/\/time.com\/subscribe-footer-time\/)\n- [Access My Digital Magazine](https:\/\/geo.ema.gs\/time_digital)\n- [Manage My Subscription](https:\/\/support.time.com\/)\n- [Global Help Center](https:\/\/support.time.com\/)\n\n- [Buy an Issue](https:\/\/magazineshop.us\/collections\/time-magazine\/)\n- [Shop the Cover Store](https:\/\/timecoverstore.com\/)\n- [Give a Gift](https:\/\/time.com\/giveagift\/)\n\n© 2026 TIME USA, LLC. All Rights Reserved. Use of this site constitutes acceptance of our [Terms of Service](https:\/\/legal.time.com\/terms-of-service), [Privacy Policy (Your Privacy Rights)](https:\/\/legal.time.com\/us-privacy-policy) and Do Not Sell or Share My Personal Information.\n\nTIME may receive compensation for some links to products and services on this website. Offers may be subject to change without notice.","attrs_readable_markdown":"Early in the COVID-19 pandemic, doctors started to notice something striking. For what was originally described as a respiratory virus, SARS-CoV-2 seemed to have a strong [effect on the brain](https:\/\/time.com\/5896393\/coronavirus-neurologic-symptoms\/ \"undefined\"), causing everything from [loss of taste and smell](https:\/\/time.com\/6113909\/covid-19-smell-taste-loss\/ \"undefined\") and brain fog to, in serious cases, [stroke](https:\/\/healthcare.utah.edu\/healthfeed\/2022\/01\/covid-19-increasing-stroke-risks-people-of-all-ages \"undefined\").\n\nNYU Langone Health, a New York city research hospital, started [collating those anecdotes](https:\/\/med.nyu.edu\/departments-institutes\/population-health\/divisions-sections-centers\/biostatistics\/research\/neuro-databank-biobank \"undefined\") in hopes of better understanding how the virus affects the brain and nervous system. Years later, the project has morphed from focusing solely on acute symptoms to also tracking the long-term neurologic issues that some [people with Long COVID experience](https:\/\/time.com\/6207214\/covid-19-brain-impact\/ \"undefined\"), says program director Dr. Sharon Meropol.\n\nThe “Holy Grail” question now, Meropol says, is what’s going on in the brains of COVID-19 patients—and how to reverse the damage.\n\nGray matters\n\nIf you were to look at the brain of someone infected by certain viruses, like rabies, you would see “virus teeming everywhere. It’s black and white” that the brain is infected, says Dr. Avindra Nath, clinical director of the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke (NINDS).\n\nMore from TIME\n\nWith SARS-CoV-2, there’s more gray area. Early in the pandemic, Nath and his colleagues scanned and physically analyzed the brains of 13 people who died from COVID-19. They didn’t find the SARS-CoV-2 virus in those brains—but they did find significant damage to their blood vessels, which were coated with antibodies. It looked to Nath like the body’s immune system had gone haywire in response to the virus, causing it to attack its own blood vessels and setting off a cascade of effects that led to significant inflammation in the brain, potentially culminating in fatal damage to the part that controls breathing.\n\nIn people who survive COVID-19, brain inflammation may also explain years-long symptoms like brain fog and memory loss—though “we don’t know for sure,” Nath says.\n\nDr. Lara Jehi, who researches COVID-19 and the brain at the Cleveland Clinic, also points to inflammation as a possible trigger for COVID-19’s neurologic symptoms. She’s found [evidence of abnormal inflammation](https:\/\/pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov\/36945569\/ \"undefined\") in people with chronic post-COVID headaches. And in [a 2021 study](https:\/\/pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov\/34108016\/ \"undefined\"), Jehi and her colleagues compared the brains of people with Long COVID and Alzheimer’s disease. “We found many areas of overlap between the two, and these areas of overlap centered on…inflammation in the brain and microscopic injuries to the blood vessels,” she says.\n\nGoing into that study, Jehi says, her team wanted to determine whether the SARS-CoV-2 virus was entering the brain and causing damage directly, or triggering an immune response that led to brain changes. Their findings pointed to the latter—but researchers still haven’t ruled out the possibility that the virus has direct effects on the brain.\n\nVirus in the brain\n\nSince Nath’s brain-scanning project early in the pandemic, other researchers have found the virus in the brains of people who died from COVID-19.\n\nFor [a 2022 paper](https:\/\/www.nature.com\/articles\/s41586-022-05542-y \"undefined\") in *Nature*, researchers analyzed brain tissue of 11 people who had COVID-19 when they died. In all but one of those individuals, the researchers found the virus’ genetic material in central-nervous-system tissue—which, they wrote, “prov\\[ed\\] definitively that SARS-CoV-2 is capable of infecting and replicating within the human brain.”\n\nTo Nath, however, that’s still an open question, and one worthy of more research. His team has [continued to study the brains](https:\/\/academic.oup.com\/brain\/article\/145\/7\/2555\/6621999 \"undefined\") of COVID-19 patients and has yet to find concrete evidence of the SARS-CoV-2 virus in those organs. In [one instance](https:\/\/www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov\/pmc\/articles\/PMC10065204\/ \"undefined\"), he says, they found viral proteins—but not the full virus—in biopsied tissue from someone who had COVID-19 at the time they were undergoing brain surgery for epilepsy. Researchers behind [an April 2023 study](https:\/\/www.biorxiv.org\/content\/10.1101\/2023.04.04.535604v1 \"undefined\") not yet been peer-reviewed also found SARS-CoV-2 spike proteins—which are found on the virus’ surface and allow it to enter human cells—in the brains of people who died from COVID-19.\n\nBut the research is “inconsistent,” Nath says. “Some have found it, some have not, and some people who have found it, have found very small amounts. There’s still a gap in knowledge there.”\n\nDr. Wes Ely, who researches brain disease at Vanderbilt University Medical Center, says he’s convinced SARS-CoV-2 can attack the “support cells” of the brain, or those ensure neurons are able to keep the brain and body functioning normally. Damaging these support cells, Ely says, can kick off a domino effect that leads to tissue death in the brain.\n\nBut, Ely says, “almost certainly there are multiple processes going on”—it could be that the virus both directly affects the brain and causes changes to the immune system that lead to neurocognitive issues. “We’re not looking for a magic bullet that will solve all these problems” at once, he says.\n\nWhile there may not be a single solution, that doesn’t mean there’s no solution. Ely has found that “cognitive rehab,” a process of rebuilding the brain’s function through targeted mental exercises, can help people who develop similar cognitive decline after stays in the intensive-care unit. That approach could be risky for people with Long COVID, many of whom experience [worsened symptoms after mental or physical exertion](https:\/\/time.com\/6215346\/covid-19-rest-helps\/ \"undefined\"), Ely says—but changing the immune system’s function in hopes of reducing inflammation in the brains of people with Long COVID is another promising route.\n\nNINDS is [currently enrolling patients](https:\/\/clinicalstudies.info.nih.gov\/protocoldetails.aspx?id=000711-N&&query= \"undefined\") for a study on immunotherapy as a potential treatment for neurologic Long COVID. That approach is particularly exciting, Nath says, because it entails a therapy that is already used to treat a range of autoimmune and neurologic conditions—so if it proves effective, it could be rolled out to Long COVID patients relatively quickly.\n\nSome preliminary research also suggests blood-thinning drugs may help breakup tiny “[microclots](https:\/\/time.com\/6238147\/microclots-long-covid\/ \"undefined\")” in the blood that are linked to systemic inflammation, potentially relieving Long COVID symptoms including fatigue, brain fog, and difficulty concentrating.\n\nAs of now, there are no proven therapies for people with Long COVID symptoms, neurologic or otherwise. But Ely says he’s optimistic that COVID-related brain changes are reversible—one way or another. “The brain is incredibly neuroplastic,” he says, “and it can do amazing things.”","meta_canonical":null}

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Meta Title	COVID-19 Can Affect the Brain Even Long After an Infection
Meta Description	COVID-19 can have profound effects on the brain, leading to neurocognitive symptoms like brain fog, memory loss, and even dementia.
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Boilerpipe Text	Early in the COVID-19 pandemic, doctors started to notice something striking. For what was originally described as a respiratory virus, SARS-CoV-2 seemed to have a strong effect on the brain , causing everything from loss of taste and smell and brain fog to, in serious cases, stroke . NYU Langone Health, a New York city research hospital, started collating those anecdotes in hopes of better understanding how the virus affects the brain and nervous system. Years later, the project has morphed from focusing solely on acute symptoms to also tracking the long-term neurologic issues that some people with Long COVID experience , says program director Dr. Sharon Meropol. The “Holy Grail” question now, Meropol says, is what’s going on in the brains of COVID-19 patients—and how to reverse the damage. Gray matters If you were to look at the brain of someone infected by certain viruses, like rabies, you would see “virus teeming everywhere. It’s black and white” that the brain is infected, says Dr. Avindra Nath, clinical director of the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke (NINDS). More from TIME With SARS-CoV-2, there’s more gray area. Early in the pandemic, Nath and his colleagues scanned and physically analyzed the brains of 13 people who died from COVID-19. They didn’t find the SARS-CoV-2 virus in those brains—but they did find significant damage to their blood vessels, which were coated with antibodies. It looked to Nath like the body’s immune system had gone haywire in response to the virus, causing it to attack its own blood vessels and setting off a cascade of effects that led to significant inflammation in the brain, potentially culminating in fatal damage to the part that controls breathing. In people who survive COVID-19, brain inflammation may also explain years-long symptoms like brain fog and memory loss—though “we don’t know for sure,” Nath says. Dr. Lara Jehi, who researches COVID-19 and the brain at the Cleveland Clinic, also points to inflammation as a possible trigger for COVID-19’s neurologic symptoms. She’s found evidence of abnormal inflammation in people with chronic post-COVID headaches. And in a 2021 study , Jehi and her colleagues compared the brains of people with Long COVID and Alzheimer’s disease. “We found many areas of overlap between the two, and these areas of overlap centered on…inflammation in the brain and microscopic injuries to the blood vessels,” she says. Going into that study, Jehi says, her team wanted to determine whether the SARS-CoV-2 virus was entering the brain and causing damage directly, or triggering an immune response that led to brain changes. Their findings pointed to the latter—but researchers still haven’t ruled out the possibility that the virus has direct effects on the brain. Virus in the brain Since Nath’s brain-scanning project early in the pandemic, other researchers have found the virus in the brains of people who died from COVID-19. For a 2022 paper in Nature , researchers analyzed brain tissue of 11 people who had COVID-19 when they died. In all but one of those individuals, the researchers found the virus’ genetic material in central-nervous-system tissue—which, they wrote, “prov[ed] definitively that SARS-CoV-2 is capable of infecting and replicating within the human brain.” To Nath, however, that’s still an open question, and one worthy of more research. His team has continued to study the brains of COVID-19 patients and has yet to find concrete evidence of the SARS-CoV-2 virus in those organs. In one instance , he says, they found viral proteins—but not the full virus—in biopsied tissue from someone who had COVID-19 at the time they were undergoing brain surgery for epilepsy. Researchers behind an April 2023 study not yet been peer-reviewed also found SARS-CoV-2 spike proteins—which are found on the virus’ surface and allow it to enter human cells—in the brains of people who died from COVID-19. But the research is “inconsistent,” Nath says. “Some have found it, some have not, and some people who have found it, have found very small amounts. There’s still a gap in knowledge there.” Dr. Wes Ely, who researches brain disease at Vanderbilt University Medical Center, says he’s convinced SARS-CoV-2 can attack the “support cells” of the brain, or those ensure neurons are able to keep the brain and body functioning normally. Damaging these support cells, Ely says, can kick off a domino effect that leads to tissue death in the brain. But, Ely says, “almost certainly there are multiple processes going on”—it could be that the virus both directly affects the brain and causes changes to the immune system that lead to neurocognitive issues. “We’re not looking for a magic bullet that will solve all these problems” at once, he says. While there may not be a single solution, that doesn’t mean there’s no solution. Ely has found that “cognitive rehab,” a process of rebuilding the brain’s function through targeted mental exercises, can help people who develop similar cognitive decline after stays in the intensive-care unit. That approach could be risky for people with Long COVID, many of whom experience worsened symptoms after mental or physical exertion , Ely says—but changing the immune system’s function in hopes of reducing inflammation in the brains of people with Long COVID is another promising route. NINDS is currently enrolling patients for a study on immunotherapy as a potential treatment for neurologic Long COVID. That approach is particularly exciting, Nath says, because it entails a therapy that is already used to treat a range of autoimmune and neurologic conditions—so if it proves effective, it could be rolled out to Long COVID patients relatively quickly. Some preliminary research also suggests blood-thinning drugs may help breakup tiny “ microclots ” in the blood that are linked to systemic inflammation, potentially relieving Long COVID symptoms including fatigue, brain fog, and difficulty concentrating. As of now, there are no proven therapies for people with Long COVID symptoms, neurologic or otherwise. But Ely says he’s optimistic that COVID-related brain changes are reversible—one way or another. “The brain is incredibly neuroplastic,” he says, “and it can do amazing things.”
Markdown	[Skip to Content](https://time.com/6294762/how-covid-19-affects-brain-memory/#maincontent) - Menu Close [Subscribe](https://time.com/subscribe-header-time/) - [Health](https://time.com/section/health/) - [COVID-19](https://time.com/tag/covid-19/) # Scientists Are Just Beginning to Understand COVID-19's Effect On the Brain [ADD TIME ON GOOGLE](https://www.google.com/preferences/source?q=https://time.com) Show me more content from TIME on Google Search ![Jamie Ducharme](https://gcp-na-images.contentstack.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltee90d03f171c21c6/698a0b45db2987baea2650e7/200115_Time_Headshots_Day451258.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1%3A1) by [Jamie Ducharme](https://time.com/author/jamie-ducharme/) Ducharme is a contributor to TIME. Jul 17, 2023 2:50 PM CUT ![Coronavirus in the brain](https://gcp-na-images.contentstack.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltbb62707fadf7c03e/698a3eb347ca3810bb3baf6d/covid-19-brain.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=3%3A2) Digital generated image of cut out male head multi layered with covid-19 cells inside on blue background. Digital generated image of cut out male head multi layered with covid-19 cells inside on blue background.Getty Image ![Jamie Ducharme](https://gcp-na-images.contentstack.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltee90d03f171c21c6/698a0b45db2987baea2650e7/200115_Time_Headshots_Day451258.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1%3A1) by [Jamie Ducharme](https://time.com/author/jamie-ducharme/) Ducharme is a contributor to TIME. Jul 17, 2023 2:50 PM CUT Early in the COVID-19 pandemic, doctors started to notice something striking. For what was originally described as a respiratory virus, SARS-CoV-2 seemed to have a strong [effect on the brain](https://time.com/5896393/coronavirus-neurologic-symptoms/ "undefined"), causing everything from [loss of taste and smell](https://time.com/6113909/covid-19-smell-taste-loss/ "undefined") and brain fog to, in serious cases, [stroke](https://healthcare.utah.edu/healthfeed/2022/01/covid-19-increasing-stroke-risks-people-of-all-ages "undefined"). NYU Langone Health, a New York city research hospital, started [collating those anecdotes](https://med.nyu.edu/departments-institutes/population-health/divisions-sections-centers/biostatistics/research/neuro-databank-biobank "undefined") in hopes of better understanding how the virus affects the brain and nervous system. Years later, the project has morphed from focusing solely on acute symptoms to also tracking the long-term neurologic issues that some [people with Long COVID experience](https://time.com/6207214/covid-19-brain-impact/ "undefined"), says program director Dr. Sharon Meropol. The list of neurocognitive issues that Meropol’s team and other researchers must track is extensive: [cognitive decline](https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jamanetworkopen/fullarticle/2785388 "undefined"), [changes in brain size and structure](https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-022-04569-5 "undefined"), [depression and suicidal thinking](https://time.com/6186429/suicide-long-covid/ "undefined"), [tremors](https://www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1101/2023.06.19.23291598v1 "undefined"), [seizures](https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8053221/ "undefined"), [memory loss](https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fnagi.2022.804937/full "undefined"), and new or [worsened dementia](https://covid19.nih.gov/news-and-stories/rapid-progression-dementia-following-covid-19 "undefined") have all been linked to previous SARS-CoV-2 infections. In some cases, these longer-term problems occur [even in patients with relatively mild COVID-19](https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8432319/ "undefined"). The “Holy Grail” question now, Meropol says, is what’s going on in the brains of COVID-19 patients—and how to reverse the damage. ## Gray matters If you were to look at the brain of someone infected by certain viruses, like rabies, you would see “virus teeming everywhere. It’s black and white” that the brain is infected, says Dr. Avindra Nath, clinical director of the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke (NINDS). * ### More from TIME Advertisement * With SARS-CoV-2, there’s more gray area. Early in the pandemic, Nath and his colleagues scanned and physically analyzed the brains of 13 people who died from COVID-19. They didn’t find the SARS-CoV-2 virus in those brains—but they did find significant damage to their blood vessels, which were coated with antibodies. It looked to Nath like the body’s immune system had gone haywire in response to the virus, causing it to attack its own blood vessels and setting off a cascade of effects that led to significant inflammation in the brain, potentially culminating in fatal damage to the part that controls breathing. In people who survive COVID-19, brain inflammation may also explain years-long symptoms like brain fog and memory loss—though “we don’t know for sure,” Nath says. Dr. Lara Jehi, who researches COVID-19 and the brain at the Cleveland Clinic, also points to inflammation as a possible trigger for COVID-19’s neurologic symptoms. She’s found [evidence of abnormal inflammation](https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/36945569/ "undefined") in people with chronic post-COVID headaches. And in [a 2021 study](https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/34108016/ "undefined"), Jehi and her colleagues compared the brains of people with Long COVID and Alzheimer’s disease. “We found many areas of overlap between the two, and these areas of overlap centered on…inflammation in the brain and microscopic injuries to the blood vessels,” she says. Advertisement Going into that study, Jehi says, her team wanted to determine whether the SARS-CoV-2 virus was entering the brain and causing damage directly, or triggering an immune response that led to brain changes. Their findings pointed to the latter—but researchers still haven’t ruled out the possibility that the virus has direct effects on the brain. ## Virus in the brain Since Nath’s brain-scanning project early in the pandemic, other researchers have found the virus in the brains of people who died from COVID-19. For [a 2022 paper](https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-022-05542-y "undefined") in Nature, researchers analyzed brain tissue of 11 people who had COVID-19 when they died. In all but one of those individuals, the researchers found the virus’ genetic material in central-nervous-system tissue—which, they wrote, “prov\[ed\] definitively that SARS-CoV-2 is capable of infecting and replicating within the human brain.” To Nath, however, that’s still an open question, and one worthy of more research. His team has [continued to study the brains](https://academic.oup.com/brain/article/145/7/2555/6621999 "undefined") of COVID-19 patients and has yet to find concrete evidence of the SARS-CoV-2 virus in those organs. In [one instance](https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC10065204/ "undefined"), he says, they found viral proteins—but not the full virus—in biopsied tissue from someone who had COVID-19 at the time they were undergoing brain surgery for epilepsy. Researchers behind [an April 2023 study](https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2023.04.04.535604v1 "undefined") not yet been peer-reviewed also found SARS-CoV-2 spike proteins—which are found on the virus’ surface and allow it to enter human cells—in the brains of people who died from COVID-19. Advertisement But the research is “inconsistent,” Nath says. “Some have found it, some have not, and some people who have found it, have found very small amounts. There’s still a gap in knowledge there.” Dr. Wes Ely, who researches brain disease at Vanderbilt University Medical Center, says he’s convinced SARS-CoV-2 can attack the “support cells” of the brain, or those ensure neurons are able to keep the brain and body functioning normally. Damaging these support cells, Ely says, can kick off a domino effect that leads to tissue death in the brain. But, Ely says, “almost certainly there are multiple processes going on”—it could be that the virus both directly affects the brain and causes changes to the immune system that lead to neurocognitive issues. “We’re not looking for a magic bullet that will solve all these problems” at once, he says. While there may not be a single solution, that doesn’t mean there’s no solution. Ely has found that “cognitive rehab,” a process of rebuilding the brain’s function through targeted mental exercises, can help people who develop similar cognitive decline after stays in the intensive-care unit. That approach could be risky for people with Long COVID, many of whom experience [worsened symptoms after mental or physical exertion](https://time.com/6215346/covid-19-rest-helps/ "undefined"), Ely says—but changing the immune system’s function in hopes of reducing inflammation in the brains of people with Long COVID is another promising route. Advertisement NINDS is [currently enrolling patients](https://clinicalstudies.info.nih.gov/protocoldetails.aspx?id=000711-N&&query= "undefined") for a study on immunotherapy as a potential treatment for neurologic Long COVID. That approach is particularly exciting, Nath says, because it entails a therapy that is already used to treat a range of autoimmune and neurologic conditions—so if it proves effective, it could be rolled out to Long COVID patients relatively quickly. Some preliminary research also suggests blood-thinning drugs may help breakup tiny “[microclots](https://time.com/6238147/microclots-long-covid/ "undefined")” in the blood that are linked to systemic inflammation, potentially relieving Long COVID symptoms including fatigue, brain fog, and difficulty concentrating. As of now, there are no proven therapies for people with Long COVID symptoms, neurologic or otherwise. But Ely says he’s optimistic that COVID-related brain changes are reversible—one way or another. “The brain is incredibly neuroplastic,” he says, “and it can do amazing things.” ## Must-Reads from TIME - [‘Safe and sound’: How a U.S. Airman Shot Down in Iran Was Rescued From a Mountain Crevice](https://time.com/article/2026/04/05/-safe-and-sound-how-a-u-s-airman-shot-down-in-iran-was-rescued-from-a-mountain-crevice/?utm_rs=IL_GNBazf4RR9GSs3N-N37Btw) - [Iranian President Pens Open Letter to American People](https://time.com/article/2026/04/01/iran-war-president-open-letter-american-people/?utm_rs=IL_GNBazf4RR9GSs3N-N37Btw) - [What to Know About the Army Chief Hegseth Ousted—and the General Who’s Taking Over](https://time.com/article/2026/04/03/hegseth-army-firings-chief-of-staff/?utm_rs=IL_GNBazf4RR9GSs3N-N37Btw) - [What to Know About the 25th Amendment as Lawmakers Call for Trump’s Removal](https://time.com/article/2026/04/06/25th-amendment-constitution-trump-war-iran-threat-insanity/?utm_rs=IL_GNBazf4RR9GSs3N-N37Btw) - [Inside Trump's Search for a Way Out of the Iran War](https://time.com/article/2026/04/02/trump-iran-off-ramp/?utm_rs=IL_GNBazf4RR9GSs3N-N37Btw) - [Trump Calls Vance the ‘Fraud Czar.’ Here’s What We Know About the Role](https://time.com/article/2026/04/03/trump-vance-fraud-czar/?utm_rs=IL_GNBazf4RR9GSs3N-N37Btw) - [‘Safe and sound’: How a U.S. Airman Shot Down in Iran Was Rescued From a Mountain Crevice](https://time.com/article/2026/04/05/-safe-and-sound-how-a-u-s-airman-shot-down-in-iran-was-rescued-from-a-mountain-crevice/?utm_rs=IL_GNBazf4RR9GSs3N-N37Btw) - [Iranian President Pens Open Letter to American People](https://time.com/article/2026/04/01/iran-war-president-open-letter-american-people/?utm_rs=IL_GNBazf4RR9GSs3N-N37Btw) - [What to Know About the Army Chief Hegseth Ousted—and the General Who’s Taking Over](https://time.com/article/2026/04/03/hegseth-army-firings-chief-of-staff/?utm_rs=IL_GNBazf4RR9GSs3N-N37Btw) Read More ## Sections - [Home](https://time.com/) - [Politics](https://time.com/section/politics/) - [Health](https://time.com/section/health/) - [AI](https://time.com/tag/ai/) - [World](https://time.com/section/world/) - [Business](https://time.com/section/business/) - [Science](https://time.com/section/science/) - [Climate](https://time.com/section/climate/) - [Ideas](https://time.com/section/ideas/) - [Entertainment](https://time.com/section/entertainment/) - [Sports](https://time.com/section/sports/) - [Technology](https://time.com/tag/technology/) - [Newsletters](https://time.com/newsletters/?source=TD_Footer_Link&utm_source_pg=web&utm_medium_pg=footer&utm_campaign_pg=footer&utm_content_pg=footer-inside-time) ## More - [The TIME Vault](https://time.com/vault/) - [TIME Africa](https://africa.time.com/) - [TIME France](https://www.timefrance.fr/) - [TIME For Kids](https://www.timeforkids.com/) - [TIME Futures](https://time.com/collection/time-co2-futures/) - [TIME Studios](https://studios.time.com/) - [Video](https://time.com/collections/time-video/) - [Red Border](https://redborder.time.com/) - [Supplied Partner Content](https://partnercontent.time.com/) ## About Us - [Our Mission](https://time.com/about-time/) - [Contact the Editors](mailto:feedback@time.com) - [Press Room](https://time.com/section/press-room/) - [Media Kit](https://time.com/mediakit/) - [Reprints & Permissions](https://www.parsintl.com/publication/time) - [Masthead](https://time.com/time-masthead/) - [Careers](https://time.com/join-time/) - [Site Map](https://time.com/sitemap.xml) - [Modern Slavery Statement](https://time.com/modern-slavery-statement/) ## Your Subscriptions - [Subscribe](https://time.com/subscribe-footer-time/) - [Access My Digital Magazine](https://geo.ema.gs/time_digital) - [Manage My Subscription](https://support.time.com/) - [Global Help Center](https://support.time.com/) - [Buy an Issue](https://magazineshop.us/collections/time-magazine/) - [Shop the Cover Store](https://timecoverstore.com/) - [Give a Gift](https://time.com/giveagift/) © 2026 TIME USA, LLC. 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Readable Markdown	Early in the COVID-19 pandemic, doctors started to notice something striking. For what was originally described as a respiratory virus, SARS-CoV-2 seemed to have a strong [effect on the brain](https://time.com/5896393/coronavirus-neurologic-symptoms/ "undefined"), causing everything from [loss of taste and smell](https://time.com/6113909/covid-19-smell-taste-loss/ "undefined") and brain fog to, in serious cases, [stroke](https://healthcare.utah.edu/healthfeed/2022/01/covid-19-increasing-stroke-risks-people-of-all-ages "undefined"). NYU Langone Health, a New York city research hospital, started [collating those anecdotes](https://med.nyu.edu/departments-institutes/population-health/divisions-sections-centers/biostatistics/research/neuro-databank-biobank "undefined") in hopes of better understanding how the virus affects the brain and nervous system. Years later, the project has morphed from focusing solely on acute symptoms to also tracking the long-term neurologic issues that some [people with Long COVID experience](https://time.com/6207214/covid-19-brain-impact/ "undefined"), says program director Dr. Sharon Meropol. The “Holy Grail” question now, Meropol says, is what’s going on in the brains of COVID-19 patients—and how to reverse the damage. Gray matters If you were to look at the brain of someone infected by certain viruses, like rabies, you would see “virus teeming everywhere. It’s black and white” that the brain is infected, says Dr. Avindra Nath, clinical director of the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke (NINDS). More from TIME With SARS-CoV-2, there’s more gray area. Early in the pandemic, Nath and his colleagues scanned and physically analyzed the brains of 13 people who died from COVID-19. They didn’t find the SARS-CoV-2 virus in those brains—but they did find significant damage to their blood vessels, which were coated with antibodies. It looked to Nath like the body’s immune system had gone haywire in response to the virus, causing it to attack its own blood vessels and setting off a cascade of effects that led to significant inflammation in the brain, potentially culminating in fatal damage to the part that controls breathing. In people who survive COVID-19, brain inflammation may also explain years-long symptoms like brain fog and memory loss—though “we don’t know for sure,” Nath says. Dr. Lara Jehi, who researches COVID-19 and the brain at the Cleveland Clinic, also points to inflammation as a possible trigger for COVID-19’s neurologic symptoms. She’s found [evidence of abnormal inflammation](https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/36945569/ "undefined") in people with chronic post-COVID headaches. And in [a 2021 study](https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/34108016/ "undefined"), Jehi and her colleagues compared the brains of people with Long COVID and Alzheimer’s disease. “We found many areas of overlap between the two, and these areas of overlap centered on…inflammation in the brain and microscopic injuries to the blood vessels,” she says. Going into that study, Jehi says, her team wanted to determine whether the SARS-CoV-2 virus was entering the brain and causing damage directly, or triggering an immune response that led to brain changes. Their findings pointed to the latter—but researchers still haven’t ruled out the possibility that the virus has direct effects on the brain. Virus in the brain Since Nath’s brain-scanning project early in the pandemic, other researchers have found the virus in the brains of people who died from COVID-19. For [a 2022 paper](https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-022-05542-y "undefined") in Nature, researchers analyzed brain tissue of 11 people who had COVID-19 when they died. In all but one of those individuals, the researchers found the virus’ genetic material in central-nervous-system tissue—which, they wrote, “prov\[ed\] definitively that SARS-CoV-2 is capable of infecting and replicating within the human brain.” To Nath, however, that’s still an open question, and one worthy of more research. His team has [continued to study the brains](https://academic.oup.com/brain/article/145/7/2555/6621999 "undefined") of COVID-19 patients and has yet to find concrete evidence of the SARS-CoV-2 virus in those organs. In [one instance](https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC10065204/ "undefined"), he says, they found viral proteins—but not the full virus—in biopsied tissue from someone who had COVID-19 at the time they were undergoing brain surgery for epilepsy. Researchers behind [an April 2023 study](https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2023.04.04.535604v1 "undefined") not yet been peer-reviewed also found SARS-CoV-2 spike proteins—which are found on the virus’ surface and allow it to enter human cells—in the brains of people who died from COVID-19. But the research is “inconsistent,” Nath says. “Some have found it, some have not, and some people who have found it, have found very small amounts. There’s still a gap in knowledge there.” Dr. Wes Ely, who researches brain disease at Vanderbilt University Medical Center, says he’s convinced SARS-CoV-2 can attack the “support cells” of the brain, or those ensure neurons are able to keep the brain and body functioning normally. Damaging these support cells, Ely says, can kick off a domino effect that leads to tissue death in the brain. But, Ely says, “almost certainly there are multiple processes going on”—it could be that the virus both directly affects the brain and causes changes to the immune system that lead to neurocognitive issues. “We’re not looking for a magic bullet that will solve all these problems” at once, he says. While there may not be a single solution, that doesn’t mean there’s no solution. Ely has found that “cognitive rehab,” a process of rebuilding the brain’s function through targeted mental exercises, can help people who develop similar cognitive decline after stays in the intensive-care unit. That approach could be risky for people with Long COVID, many of whom experience [worsened symptoms after mental or physical exertion](https://time.com/6215346/covid-19-rest-helps/ "undefined"), Ely says—but changing the immune system’s function in hopes of reducing inflammation in the brains of people with Long COVID is another promising route. NINDS is [currently enrolling patients](https://clinicalstudies.info.nih.gov/protocoldetails.aspx?id=000711-N&&query= "undefined") for a study on immunotherapy as a potential treatment for neurologic Long COVID. That approach is particularly exciting, Nath says, because it entails a therapy that is already used to treat a range of autoimmune and neurologic conditions—so if it proves effective, it could be rolled out to Long COVID patients relatively quickly. Some preliminary research also suggests blood-thinning drugs may help breakup tiny “[microclots](https://time.com/6238147/microclots-long-covid/ "undefined")” in the blood that are linked to systemic inflammation, potentially relieving Long COVID symptoms including fatigue, brain fog, and difficulty concentrating. As of now, there are no proven therapies for people with Long COVID symptoms, neurologic or otherwise. But Ely says he’s optimistic that COVID-related brain changes are reversible—one way or another. “The brain is incredibly neuroplastic,” he says, “and it can do amazing things.”
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