新冠病毒或導致大腦萎縮、記憶力受損？

March 8 (Reuters) - COVID-19 can cause the brain to shrink, reduce grey matter in the regions that control emotion and memory, and damage areas that control the sense of smell, an Oxford University study has found.

3月8日(路透社)：牛津大學的一項研究發(fā)現(xiàn)，新冠病毒(COVID-19)會導致大腦萎縮，減少大腦內(nèi)控制情緒和記憶的灰質(zhì)，并損害控制嗅覺的區(qū)域。

The scientists said that the effects were even seen in people who had not been hospitalised with COVID, and whether the impact could be partially reversed or if they would persist in the long term needed further investigation.

科學家們表示，這些影響甚至在沒有因新冠住院的人身上也被觀測到，而這種影響是否可以部分逆轉以及它們是否會長期存在，需要進一步的調(diào)查。

"There is strong evidence for brain-related abnormalities in COVID-19," the researchers said in their study, which was released on Monday.

"存在強有力的證據(jù)表明新冠病毒(COVID-19)與大腦相關的異常現(xiàn)象有關。"研究人員在周一發(fā)布的研究中說道。

Even in mild cases, participants in the research showed "a worsening of executive function" responsible for focus and organising, and on an average brain sizes shrank between 0.2% and 2%.

即使是在影響輕微的案例中，這項研究參與者的集中精神和組織能力都產(chǎn)生了"執(zhí)行功能的惡化"，其大腦大小平均縮小了0.2%至2%。

The peer-reviewed study, published in the Nature journal, investigated brain changes in 785 participants aged 51–81whose brains were scanned twice, including 401 people who caught COVID between their two scans. The second scan was done on average 141 days after the first scan.

這項經(jīng)過同行評議的研究，發(fā)表在了《自然》這本雜志上。其調(diào)查了785名年齡在51-81歲之間的參與者的大腦變化。研究期間，他們的大腦被掃描了兩次，其中有401名參與者在兩次掃描之間感染了新冠。二次大腦掃描間的時差平均為141天。

The study was conducted when the Alpha variant was dominant in Britain and is unlikely to include anyone infected with the Delta variant.

該研究進行時，英國境內(nèi)主要是新冠病毒阿爾法變異株，參與者中不太可能包括任何感染德爾塔變體的人。

Studies have found some people who had COVID suffered from "brain fog" or mental cloudiness that included impairment to attention, concentration, speed of information processing and memory.

研究發(fā)現(xiàn)，一些新冠病患產(chǎn)生了"腦霧"或精神混亂的現(xiàn)象，包括注意力、集中力、信息處理速度和記憶力的受損。

The researchers did not say if vaccination against COVID had any impact on the condition but the UK Health Security Agency said last month that a review of 15 studies found that vaccinated people were about half as likely to develop symptoms of long COVID compared with the unvaccinated.

研究人員并沒有說接種新冠疫苗是否會改善這種現(xiàn)象。但是在上個月，英國衛(wèi)生安全局表示，在對15項研究進行審查后發(fā)現(xiàn)：與未接種疫苗的人相比，接種疫苗的人出現(xiàn)這些癥狀的可能性大約減少了一半。