Brain fog/ cognitive dysfunction

A word of caution is needed before it is adopted on any widespread basis. Lipowski points out how 19th century psychopathologists advanced the field by specifying a class of disorders based on clouding of consciousness and confusion arising in the context of acute brain dysfunction. What followed was a proliferation of terms that set back further research for decades. Time will tell if the term becomes more widely adapted or it is fitted into existing nomenclature. Based on the recent tightening of the nomenclature for delirium it is not likely. Since most people seem to be using it to cover both mild and moderate subjective cognitive impairment my [view is that] it does not add much precision. On the other hand psychiatrists are focused on the patient’s subjective state and use of language so it is undoubtedly useful for beginning the early exploration of the problem that led to the consultation.
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I believe that he's quite right to be cautious. It would be very easy to just add to the babble. I think that this problem won't be resolved until the individual causes are resolved and they can label each one with an acronym/initialism and sideline the subjectivity.
 
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BBC Science Focus Magazine: What is brain fog? A neuroscientist reveals what causes it and how to get rid of it

ME/CFS is briefly mentioned, as well as long covid, brain fog after chemotherapy and menopause.

The author starts with talking about some potential biomedical reasons, then continues:

"However, in all these contexts and others, it’s also possible that there are emotional and social contributors to brain fog. For instance, it’s telling that many people who have not been infected by coronavirus have nonetheless reported feeling more tired and distracted than usual during the pandemic, perhaps because of the stress and demands of lockdowns and homeworking.

Likewise, one of the main causes of chemobrain is thought to be the stress involved in coping with the illness and treatment. When it comes to the menopause too, there could be indirect contributors to brain fog, such as the effects of poor sleep or the general stresses of navigating a challenging phase of life.

In some situations, such as during pregnancy, the causes of brain fog could even be the mere expectation of mental impairment, fuelled by popular beliefs, rather than there being any underlying direct harmful effect of pregnancy on the brain, or indeed any objective impairment to cognitive function. In this sense, brain fog can be caused by a nocebo effect (a negative placebo effect)."

Full article: https://www.sciencefocus.com/the-human-body/brain-fog/​
 
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About the author:

Christian Jarrett

Dr Christian Jarrett is a cognitive neuroscientist, science writer and author. He is the Deputy Editor of Psyche, the sister magazine to Aeon that illuminates the human condition through psychology, philosophy and the arts. Jarrett also created the British Psychological Society's Research Digest blog and was the first ever staff journalist on the Society's magazine, The Psychologist. He is author of Great Myths of The Brain and Be Who You Want: Unlocking the Science of Personality Change.
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Say no more.
 
The intersection of hubris and ignorance is really just offensive and stupid. I genuinely make no distinction between this mind-body crap and attributing the same to demons or ghost spirits at this point, there is no real difference here. Just pure reckless indifference towards other people as full living beings like themselves, creating paper-thin caricatures of human behavior as mere simpletons.

Academia has ivory tower thinking but this is pedestal thinking, looking down on people from a position of privilege and being convinced of the superiority of their ideas even to reality itself. The pedestal has to be destroyed, medicine is literally regressing into pseudoscience and disinformation and there's zero accountability to it.
 
Wyva said:
In some situations, such as during pregnancy, the causes of brain fog could even be the mere expectation of mental impairment, fuelled by popular beliefs, rather than there being any underlying direct harmful effect of pregnancy on the brain, or indeed any objective impairment to cognitive function.
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Put that man in a room with a few pregnant persons so he can persuade them of the error of their beliefs. And they of his.
 
Oh, another pillock whittering on as if he knows what he's taking about. They are like wasps at a picnic, except its not a picnic it's a car crash, and they are drones buzzing around, helping no one except themselves, just a thorn in the side of suffering people.
I do wish they would all just Shut. Up.
 
On the subject of brain fog in a specific circumstance:

I have recently discovered that wearing compression wear helps me to keep a clear head! I do agility with my dogs, who are trained to run ahead on verbal cues (ie I don’t run with them like most handlers).

Typically I have found it difficult to remember a whole course, and by 40 seconds in, I am starting to get very foggy. Also on exiting the ring my legs are wobbly, and I’m having difficulty with co-ordination.

Since starting to use, compression socks, leggings & a corset-like abdominal binder, my ability has dramatically changed. I can remember complex courses, I can deliver cues to my dogs in a more timely manner, and I can even walk out of the ring without immediately finding my strategically placed chair to flop into to put my head between my knees!

Apparently getting more blood to the brain helps with thinking clearly!

Now of course, this may not be everyone’s reason for “brain fog”, but it is certainly a clue to what might be happening. And strongly indicative of a physical reason for the inability to process information in a timely manner.
 
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If not for this overlap in terminology between mental and physical illnesses, these people would have nothing to base their mind-body crap on. Brain fog and fatigue carry an entire different meaning for a depressed person vs someone with ME but we simply have no other words to express ourselves and they shamelessly abuse that fact as evidence for their theories.
 
Brain fog is an all encompassing statement relating to a wide range of cognitive difficulties.

In pwME the difficulties with cognitive dysfunction can be assessed via neuropsychological testing. This consistently shows up problems with attention, concentration, difficulty with set shifting, fine and gross motor control, short and long term memory, reduced capacity to process information quickly, swiftly and accurately and so on. My doctoral work investigated these along with the impact of ongoing cognitive exertion. Deficits can reach the point of being impaired (below 5th percentile versus published norms). These deficits or impairments can be some of the best evidence that pwME are debilitated, no functioning as they should and can be profoundly ill.

The deficits that pwME consistently show are not related / correlated with measurements of stress / distress. I found this. As have others independently. One cannot wish away such brain fog or nor can it be fixed by psychotherapy.
 
This is the second article by Dr Eleanor Roberts looking at brain fog, the range of cognitive difficulties experienced by people with ME/CFS.

Read part 1 here, which introduces cognitive function and the areas of the brain involved.

Cognitive dysfunction can be one of the most distressing symptoms for people with ME/CFS. This includes decreases in working memory, attention, ability to monitor errors, organisational skills, problem solving, verbal fluency and reasoning.

Introduction
There are a number of tests and techniques used to assess brain structure and function, and some of these were discussed in a previous article.

There is clearly cognitive dysfunction in ME/CFS, and a 2010 meta-analysis revealed significant differences in information processing, working memory and attention in people with ME/CFS compared with healthy control subjects.

However, unlike a focused injury (such as occurs with a stroke), with ME/CFS no single brain region has been found to be disrupted in all people. Damage and changes leading to cognitive dysfunction may involve not only the grey matter, where neuronal cell bodies sit, but also the white matter, where axons send signals between different brain areas.

In addition to neuronal structural changes, problems may also arise due to changes in function. Furthermore, abnormalities may relate to problems in areas of the brain directly involved in cognition and/or other brain areas that influence these through the connections between them (as discussed in part 1).

In this article, we look at a few of the many brain studies conducted in people with ME/CFS, concentrating on those that have examined areas of the brain directly involved in cognitive function: the anterior cingulate cortex (ACC), the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (dlPFC) and the lateral orbitofrontal cortex (lOFC).
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https://www.meresearch.org.uk/brain-fog-2/
 
Not sure if this is the best thread to add this comment to, but it's possibly the most recent of relevant options.

There has been comment in the past about how the term "brain fog" is unsatisfactory. More scientifically precise descriptors related to cognitive dysfunction would be preferable. It occurred to me that as the micro-clot finding is going through its early days of investigation, perhaps the term will end up being more accurate that we realised.

If the primary pathophysiology of micro-clots is shown to be through platelet activation and endothelial dysfunction, taking effect principally at the capillary level, then this wispy material may be causing disruption of the blood-brain barrier, resulting in the neuroinflammation that Younger and others are showing.
 
Due to the direction of the posting, we've changed the title of this thread to cover brain fog/cognitive dysfunction generally, rather than just the article in the first post.
 
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