“Removing the Mask”

Artist: Sydni Paleczny, Neuroscience Graduate Program, Schulich School of Medicine & Dentistry, Western University.

The COVID-19 pandemic has led to over 351 million cases and over 5.6 million deaths worldwide (as of January 24, 2022). COVID-19 survivors, particularly those who survive critical illness, report persistent long-term neuropsychological effects, often described as ‘brain fog’. Characterizing neuropsychological illness is challenging; often impairment is not the result of specific neuroanatomical injury. Instead, neuropsychological deficits emerge in areas of cognition including memory, verbal, and information processing ability. Our team of researchers from Western University and London Health Sciences Centre in London, Ontario (including the artist) aim to investigate the incidence and severity of cognitive impairment in survivors of severe and critical COVID-19 illness using remote, web-based cognitive testing. Preliminary results indicate that patients who survived hospitalization with severe or critical COVID-19 had impaired cognitive function, particularly in verbal processing and reasoning skills. This ‘brain fog’ is a persistent complication of long-term COVID-19 critical illness, as well as a distressing reminder of the emotional toll the pandemic has placed on the neuropsychological health of society. There is an urgent need to characterize the scope of this problem, in an attempt to inform preventative or treatment measures and remove the mask covering the unknown debilitating effects of COVID-19.