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ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. Neurosci.
Sec. Translational Neuroscience
Volume 19 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fnins.2025.1576393
Functional Connectivity of Default Mode Network in Non-hospitalized Patients with Post-COVID Cognitive Complaints
Provisionally accepted
Derek Madden 1
Tressie Stephens 2 Jim Scott 2 Christen O’Neal Swann 2
Kiana Prather 2
Jordan Hoffmeister 2
Lei Ding 1
Ian Dunn 2
Andrew Conner 2
Han Yuan 1*- 1 University of Oklahoma, Norman, United States
- 2 University of Oklahoma Health Sciences Center, Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, United States
Neurologic impairment is common in patients with acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus-2 (SARS-CoV-2) infection. While patients with severe COVID have a higher prevalence of neurologic symptoms, as many as one in five patients with mild COVID may also be affected, exhibiting impaired memory as well as other cognitive dysfunctions. To characterize the effect of COVID on the brain, the current study recruited a group of adults with post-COVID cognitive complaints but with mild, non-hospitalized cases. They were then evaluated through formal neuropsychological testing and underwent functional MRI of the brain. The participants in our study performed nearly as expected for cognitively intact individuals. Additionally, we characterized the functional connectivity of the default mode network (DMN), which is known for cognitive functions including memory as well as the attention functions involved in normal aging and degenerative diseases. Along with the retention of functional connectivity in the DMN, our results found the DMN to be associated with neurocognitive performance through region-of-interest and whole-brain analyses. The connectivity between key nodes of the DMN was positively correlated with cognitive scores (r = 0.51, p = 0.02), with higher performers exhibiting higher DMN connectivity. Our findings provide neuroimaging evidence of the functional connectivity of brain networks among individuals experiencing cognitive deficits beyond the recovery of mild COVID. These imaging outcomes indicate expected functional trends in the brain, furthering understanding and guidance of the DMN and neurocognitive deficits in patients recovering from COVID.
Keywords: COVID-19, functional magnetic resonance imaging, resting state functional connectivity, Default Mode Network, cognitive impairment, Posterior cingulate cortex
Received: 14 Feb 2025; Accepted: 26 Mar 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Madden, Stephens, Scott, O’Neal Swann, Prather, Hoffmeister, Ding, Dunn, Conner and Yuan. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence:
Han Yuan, University of Oklahoma, Norman, United States
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