The pandemic brain: Neuroinflammation in non-infected individuals during the COVID-19 pandemic.

While COVID-19 research has seen an explosion in the literature, the impact of pandemic-related societal and lifestyle disruptions on brain health among the uninfected remains underexplored. However, a global increase in the prevalence of fatigue, brain fog, depression and other "sickness behavior"-like symptoms implicates a possible dysregulation in neuroimmune mechanisms even among those never infected by the virus. We compared fifty-seven 'Pre-Pandemic' and fifteen 'Pandemic' datasets from individuals originally enrolled as control subjects for various completed, or ongoing, research studies available in our records, with a confirmed negative test for SARS-CoV-2 antibodies. We used a combination of multimodal molecular brain imaging (simultaneous positron emission tomography / magnetic resonance spectroscopy), behavioral measurements, imaging transcriptomics and serum testing to uncover links between pandemic-related stressors and neuroinflammation. Healthy individuals examined after the enforcement of 2020 lockdown/stay-at-home measures demonstrated elevated brain levels of two independent neuroinflammatory markers (the 18 kDa translocator protein, TSPO, and myoinositol) compared to pre-lockdown subjects. The serum levels of two inflammatory markers (interleukin-16 and monocyte chemoattractant protein-1) were also elevated, although these effects did not reach statistical significance after correcting for multiple comparisons. Subjects endorsing higher symptom burden showed higher TSPO signal in the hippocampus (mood alteration, mental fatigue), intraparietal sulcus and precuneus (physical fatigue), compared to those reporting little/no symptoms. Post-lockdown TSPO signal changes were spatially aligned with the constitutive expression of several genes involved in immune/neuroimmune functions. This work implicates neuroimmune activation as a possible mechanism underlying the non-virally-mediated symptoms experienced by many during the COVID-19 pandemic. Future studies will be needed to corroborate and further interpret these preliminary findings.

Exploring Neuroplasticity in the Classroom: Teaching Cortical Reorganization in the Visual System with a Stroke Patient Study.

Neuroscience education often dedicates a substantial amount of time to the study of neuroplasticity and cortical reorganization. Research articles that demonstrate neuroplasticity and cortical reorganization in human patients provide opportunities for neuroscience education. Dilks et al., in a 2007 article published in the Journal of Neuroscience provided evidence for cortical reorganization within the human primary visual cortex by utilizing both behavioral and fMRI data. The study examined stroke patient B.L. who was cortically blind in the upper left visual field. In the presence of visual stimuli from the lower left visual field, cortical reorganization allowed for the activation of areas of V1 that would not normally respond to this visual information. Therefore, B.L. perceived visual stimuli presented in the lower left visual field to be vertically elongated into the upper left visual field (Dilks et al., 2007). This paper is an ideal platform for teaching an undergraduate neuroscience audience about neuroplasticity within the human brain. The article allows students to combine knowledge of both the visual system and neuroplasticity and provides a visual representation of cortical reorganization that helps facilitate understanding of principles of neuroscience.