Abnormal Brain Activation Patterns in Patients With Post-Acute Sequelae of COVID-19 (PASC) During Recovery: A fNIRS Study
Yuchen Ran, Shuang Wu, Shuai Liu, Chao Chen, Yangxi Li, Tianxin Gao, Yingwei Fan, Xiaoying Tang (2025) Abnormal Brain Activation Patterns in Patients With Post-Acute Sequelae of COVID-19 (PASC) During Recovery: A fNIRS Study J Biophotonics (IF: 2.3) e202500206Abstract
COVID-19 has increased the likelihood of cognitive impairment in patients with post-acute sequelae of COVID-19 (PASC). There is a lack of direct evidence regarding the working memory performance of mild patients during the recovery period. This study employed functional near-infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS) to construct a mixed effects model for PASC patients performing the N-back task, assessing brain activation levels and brain connectivity. PASC patients exhibited abnormally low activation in the parietal lobe (β = -0.21) and abnormally high activation in the occipital lobe (β = 0.40). There was a significant reduction in brain connectivity within the frontal-parietal and frontal-occipital networks. These findings suggest that PASC patients experience impaired fronto-parietal network connectivity, rely more on the visual cortex to compensate for executive function deficits, and use this as a compensatory mechanism to reduce overall cerebral blood oxygenation. This study provides evidence of altered brain activation patterns in PASC patients during the recovery period due to cognitive impairment.© 2025 Wiley‐VCH GmbH.
Links
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/40947112http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/jbio.202500206
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