Changes in thalamic functional connectivity in post-Covid patients with and without fatigue, 2024, Manuel et al.

Changes in thalamic functional connectivity in post-Covid patients with and without fatigue
Manuel; Peter; Stefan; Reinhold; Manuel; Maria; Marisa

BACKGROUND
Functional brain alterations in post-Covid-19 condition have been minimally explored to date. Here, we investigate differences in resting-state thalamic functional connectivity among post-Covid patients with and without fatigue, alongside structural brain changes and cognition.

METHODS
Thirty-nine post-Covid patients (n=15 fatigued, n=24 nonfatigued) participated in our study, undergoing comprehensive cognitive assessments, as well as functional and structural neuroimaging. We conducted a seed-based functional connectivity analysis using the thalamus as a seed region, exploring its connectivity with the entire brain. To further elucidate our findings, correlation analyses were performed using the functional coupling between the thalamus and regions showing different connectivity between the two patient groups.

RESULTS
Our results reveal that patients experiencing fatigue exhibit anticorrelated functional coupling between the thalamus and motor-associated regions, including the motor cortex (M1), supplementary motor area (SMA), and anterior cingulate cortex (ACC), compared to non-fatigued patients, who are showing positive functional coupling. Furthermore, this observed coupling was found to correlate with both the fatigue scores obtained from a fatigue questionnaire and performance on the Trail Making Test, Part A, which represents a measure of processing speed.

CONCLUSIONS
Our study highlights significant differences in resting-state functional connectivity between post-Covid patients with and without fatigue, particularly within motor-associated brain regions. These findings suggest a potential neural mechanism underlying post-Covid fatigue and underscore the importance of considering both functional and structural brain changes in understanding the symptomatic sequelae of post-Covid-19 condition. Further research is warranted to provide insight into the longitudinal trajectories of these neural alterations.

Link | PDF (NeuroImage)

 

Going to have to work extra hard to avoid the inevitable confusion with the other meaning of function here. Which is obviously why they chose it. There will be so much unnecessary confusion if this turns out to be important, and it looks more and more like it, with neurons and other brain cells adapting their functioning in a way that doesn't obviously change the structure.

Damn those ideologues.