Figure, Left, Effects of post-acute COVID-19 syndrome on the functional brain networks of non-hospitalized individuals (2023): Altered network functional connectivity for individuals with COVID-19 relative to controls. (A) significant connections are depicted via lines connecting regions of interest (ROIs), with warm colors indicating increased connectivity for the COVID-19 group, and cool colors denoting decreased connectivity (B) heatmap showing the percentage of significant connections that occur between a given pair of lobes (C) scatterplot showing mean connectivity values within regions of significant decrease, plotted for individuals in the COVID-19 and control groups; boxplots denote group means and 95%CIs of the mean.
NeuroCOVID-19
The Graham Lab has been conducting its NeuroCOVID study since April of 2020. The aim of the study is to inspect differences in brain regions of those with "long COVID", compared to controls, over the concourse that symptoms persist and subsequently recover. If you are interested in becoming a participant in the NeuroCOVID study, recruitment is ongoing. Please reach out to
The NeuroCOVID-19 projects "NEUROCOVID19: Impact of the Virus on the Brain" and "Multiparametric Analysis of Brain & Lung Imaging from COVID-19 Patients" have previously been funded by the Sunnybrook Foundation: Covid-19 Research Initiative and MITACS Accelerate, respectfully. The project is currently funded from a CIHR grant entitled “Long-Haul COVID-19 Affecting the Elderly in our Communities: A Study Involving Electroencephalography and Magnetic Resonance Imaging of the Brain.”
As the COVID-19 pandemic continues, it is becoming clear that very many people are being affected by "long-haul" symptoms, after they are no longer infectious. The long-haul symptoms, including fatigue, brain fog, and cognitive and psychiatric complaints suggest that COVID-19 is having an impact on the brain. Literature is suggesting that possibly hundreds of thousands of Canadians and millions of people around the world could ultimately struggle with these symptoms, which impact activities of daily living and quality of life.
In partnership with investigators at Baycrest Centre for Geriatric Care and St. Michael’s Hospital of Unity Health in Toronto, we are undertaking a project called NeuroCOVID19, that encompasses behavioural assessments of sensation, cognition and emotion; symptom self-reports; electroencephalography (EEG) of the electrical signals of the brain; and magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) of the brain. As we use NeuroCOVID19 to measure the effects of long-haul COVID-19 in the adult population, and also the elderly living in Toronto communities, we expect to “subtype” individuals who have specific clusters of long-haul COVID-19 symptoms, and to translate this knowledge so that patient-specific brain treatments can be implemented to improve the health of very many Canadians.
Recent Publications
Teller N, Chad JA, Wong A, Gunraj H, Ji X, Goubran M, Gilboa A, Roudaia E, Sekuler A, Churchill N, Schweizer T, Gao F, Masellis M, Lam B, Heyn C, Cheng I, Fowler R, Black SE, MacIntosh BJ, Graham SJ, Chen JJ. Hum Brain Mapp. 2023 May 10. doi: 10.1002/hbm.26322. Epub ahead of print. PMID: 37162380.
Nathan W Churchill, Eugenie Roudaia, J Jean Chen, Asaf Gilboa, Allison Sekuler, Xiang Ji, Fuqiang Gao, Zhongmin Lin, Aravinthan Jegatheesan, Mario Masellis, Maged Goubran, Jennifer S Rabin, Benjamin Lam, Ivy Cheng, Robert Fowler, Chris Heyn, Sandra E Black, Bradley J MacIntosh, Simon J Graham, Tom A Schweizer. Frontiers in Neurology. 2023 Mar 27. doi: 10.3389/fneur.2023.1136408 PMID: 37051059
Kim WSH, Ji X, Roudaia E, Chen JJ, Gilboa A, Sekuler A, Gao F, Lin Z, Jegatheesan A, Masellis M, Goubran M, Rabin JS, Lam B, Cheng I, Fowler R, Heyn C, Black SE, Graham SJ, MacIntosh BJ. J Magn Reson Imaging. 2022 Dec 6. doi: 10.1002/jmri.28555. Online ahead of print. PMID: 36472248
MacIntosh BJ, Ji X, Chen JJ, Gilboa A, Roudaia E, Sekuler AB, Gao F, Chad JA, Jegatheesan A, Masellis M, Goubran M, Rabin J, Lam B, Cheng I, Fowler R, Heyn C, Black SE, Graham SJ. CMAJ Open. 2021 Nov 30;9(4):E1114-E1119. doi: 10.9778/cmajo.20210023. Print 2021 Oct-Dec. PMID: 34848552