Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2022 Sep:154:212-230.
doi: 10.1016/j.cortex.2022.06.002. Epub 2022 Jun 11.

Cognitive impairment in people with previous COVID-19 infection: A scoping review

Margherita Bertuccelli  1 , Luciana Ciringione  2 , Maria Rubega  2 , Patrizia Bisiacchi  3 , Stefano Masiero  1 , Alessandra Del Felice  4
Affiliations

Cognitive impairment in people with previous COVID-19 infection: A scoping review

Margherita Bertuccelli et al. Cortex. 2022 Sep.

Abstract

Severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 is a worldwide public health issue. Almost 2 years into the pandemic, the persistence of symptoms after the acute phase is a well-recognized phenomenon. We conducted a scoping review to map cognitive domain impairments, their frequency, and associated psycho-affective disorders in people with a previous COVID-19 infection. We searched PubMed/MEDLINE, Scopus, and PsycInfo to identify relevant reports published between December 1, 2019 and February 21, 2022. We followed the PRISMA (Preferred-Reporting-Items-for-Systematic-Reviews-and-Meta-Analyses) extension for scoping review guidelines. Three independent reviewers selected and charted 25 records out of 922. Memory, attention, and executive functions appeared to be the most affected domains. Delayed recall and learning were the most impaired domains of memory. Among the executive functions, abstraction, inhibition, set shifting, and sustained and selective attention were most commonly impaired. Language and visuo-spatial abilities were rarely affected, although this finding might be biased by the scarcity of reports. Neurological and respiratory conditions were often reported in association with cognitive deficits. Results on psycho-affective conditions were inconclusive due to the low frequency of reported data. Admission to an intensive care unit is not related to cognitive deficits. This review highlighted a potential effect of a previous post-COVID-19 infection on a pattern of memory, attention, and executive functions impairments. These findings need to be confirmed on larger cohorts with comprehensive neuropsychological batteries and correlated to neurophysiological and neurobiological substrates.

Keywords: Cognitive impairment; Coronavirus; Long-COVID-19 syndrome; Neuropsychological abnormalities; Post-COVID-19 syndrome; SARS-CoV-2.

PubMed Disclaimer

Conflict of interest statement

Declaration of competing interest The authors have no relevant financial or nonfinancial interests to disclose.

Figures

Fig. 1
Fig. 1
Long-Covid symptoms. 1: Davis et al., 2021; 2: Lopez-Leon et al., 2021; 3: Yong, S. J., 2021; 4: Evans et al., 2021; 5: Neetham et al., 2012.
Fig. 2
Fig. 2
Flow Chart of the selection procedure.
Fig. 3
Fig. 3
Frequencies of COVID-19-related cognitive impairments. Red dots represent the number of studies reporting cognitive impairments for each cognitive domain over the total number of studies assessing the given domain.
Fig. 4
Fig. 4
Frequencies of COVID-19-related cognitive impairments according to recovery setting. Blue dots represent the number of studies reporting cognitive impairments in ICU-admitted persons, while green dots represent the number of studies reporting cognitive impairments in non-ICU-admitted persons.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

References

    1. Adhikari N.K.J., Tansey C.M., McAndrews M.P., Matté A., Pinto R., Cheung A.M., Diaz-Granados N., Herridge M.S. Self-reported depressive symptoms and memory complaints in survivors five years after ARDS. Chest. 2011;140(6):1484–1493. doi: 10.1378/chest.11-1667. - DOI - PubMed
    1. Aiello E.N., Fiabane E., Manera M.R., Radici A., Grossi F., Ottonello M.…Pistarini C. Episodic long-term memory in post-infectious SARS-CoV-2 patients. Neurological Sciences. 2022;43(2):785–788. - PMC - PubMed
    1. Akbarialiabad H., Taghrir M.H., Abdollahi A., Ghahramani N., Kumar M., Paydar S., Razani B., Mwangi J., Asadi-Pooya A.A., Malekmakan L., Bastani B. Long COVID, a comprehensive systematic scoping review. Infection. 2021 doi: 10.1007/s15010-021-01666-x. 0123456789. - DOI - PMC - PubMed
    1. Albu S., Zozaya N.R., Murillo N., García-Molina A., Chacón C.A.F., Kumru H. What's going on following acute COVID-19? Clinical characteristics of patients in an out-patient rehabilitation program. Neurorehabilitation. 2021;48(4):469–480. doi: 10.3233/nre-210025. - DOI - PubMed
    1. Alemanno F., Houdayer E., Parma A., Spina A., Del Forno A., Scatolini A., Angelone S., Brugliera L., Tettamanti A., Beretta L., Iannaccone S. COVID-19 cognitive deficits after respiratory assistance in the subacute phase: A COVID-rehabilitation unit experience. Plos One. 2021;16(2) doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0246590. - DOI - PMC - PubMed

Publication types