The findings of the research suggested smell loss, known as anosmia, caused by long Covid is linked to a change
1 min read . Updated: 18 Apr 2023, 06:43 AM IST
PremiumA study has found that people living with long Covid who suffer from loss of smell show different patterns of activity in certain regions of the brain.
A study has found that brain activities decline in Covid patients who have suffered smell loss for a longer duration. The study, published in the journal, 'EClinicalMedicine', also found impaired communication between two parts of the brain which process important smell information: the orbitofrontal cortex and the pre-frontal cortex.
However, this connection was not impaired in people who had regained their sense of smell after Covid.
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 Covid-19.
The findings of the research suggested smell loss, known as anosmia, caused by long Covid is linked to a change in the brain that stops smells from being processed properly.
"Persistent loss of smell is just one way long Covid is still impacting people's quality of life - the smell is something we take for granted, but it guides us in lots of ways and is closely tied to our overall well-being. Our study gives reassurance that, for the majority of people whose sense of smell comes back, there are no permanent changes to brain activity," Dr Jed Wingrove (UCL Department of Medicine) the lead author of the study said.
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 (the visual cortex).
"This tells us that the neurons that would normally process smell are still there, but they're just working in a different way," another researcher said.