Abstract: Increasing evidence suggests that Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by SARS-CoV-2 has affected the global population, but a group often overlooked is the adolescent population. Facing milder symptoms of COVID-19 as compared to their older counterparts, adolescents are not the prime focus of COVID research. This study measured the impacts of COVID on teenage neural processing and speech perception.
The current study compared the neural response to speech sounds in high-schoolers with and without a history of contracting COVID. event-related potential paradigm was used, and the electro-encephalogram (EEG) waves were time-locked to each speech stimulus. The mismatch negativity responses ( the difference between the standard and deviant sounds) were compared between the two participant groups. The two English vowels /ɪ/ and /ɛ/ were used in a nine-equal-step continuum as stimuli.
Overall, adolescents without a history of COVID showed larger standard and deviant responses at all three brain regions and across both standard and deviant conditions, except deviant conditions at the dominant hemisphere. Taken together, these findings suggest that contracting COVID may have long-term effects on the brains of adolescents. Future studies may examine the longer-term effect of COVID on the developing brain, given that participants of this study who had COVID were tested within 6 months of recovery.
References
Alhanbali, S., Dawes, P., Lloyd, S., & Munro, K. J. (2018). Hearing Handicap and Speech
Recognition Correlate With Self-Reported Listening Effort and Fatigue. Ear and hearing, 39(3),
470–474. https://doi.org/10.1097/AUD.0000000000000515
Bishop, N. A., Lu, T., & Yankner, B. A. (2010). Neural mechanisms of ageing and cognitive
decline. Nature, 464(7288), 529–535. https://doi.org/10.1038/nature08983
Briscoe, J., Bishop, D. V., & Norbury, C. F. (2001). Phonological processing, language, and
literacy: a comparison of children with mild-to-moderate sensorineural hearing loss and those
with specific language impairment. Journal of child psychology and psychiatry, and allied
disciplines, 42(3), 329–340.
Carod-Artal F. J. (2021). Post-COVID-19 syndrome: epidemiology, diagnostic criteria and
pathogenic mechanisms involved. Síndrome post-COVID-19: epidemiología, criterios
diagnósticos y mecanismos patogénicos implicados. Revista de neurologia, 72(11), 384–396.
https://doi.org/10.33588/rn.7211.2021230
Ceban, F., Ling, S., Lui, L. M. W., Lee, Y., Gill, H., Teopiz, K. M., Rodrigues, N. B.,
Subramaniapillai, M., Di Vincenzo, J. D., Cao, B., Lin, K., Mansur, R. B., Ho, R. C., Rosenblat,
J. D., Miskowiak, K. W., Vinberg, M., Maletic, V., & McIntyre, R. S. (2022). Fatigue and
cognitive impairment in Post-COVID-19 Syndrome: A systematic review and meta-analysis.
Brain, behavior, and immunity, 101, 93–135. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.bbi.2021.12.020
Cheour, M., Shestakova, A., Alku, P., Ceponiene, R., & Näätänen, R. (2002). Mismatch
negativity shows that 3-6-year-old children can learn to discriminate non-native speech sounds
within two months. Neuroscience letters, 325(3), 187–190.
https://doi.org/10.1016/s0304-3940(02)00269-0
Claessen, M., & Leitão, S. (2012). Phonological representations in children with SLI. Child
Language Teaching and Therapy, 28(2), 211–223. https://doi.org/10.1177/0265659012436851
Datta, H., Shafer, V. L., Morr, M. L., Kurtzberg, D., & Schwartz, R. G. (2010).
Electrophysiological indices of discrimination of long-duration, phonetically similar vowels in
children with typical and atypical language development. Journal of speech, language, and
hearing research : JSLHR, 53(3), 757–777. https://doi.org/10.1044/1092-4388(2009/08-0123)
Dhochak, N., Singhal, T., Kabra, S. K., & Lodha, R. (2020). Pathophysiology of COVID-19:
Why Children Fare Better than Adults?. Indian journal of pediatrics, 87(7), 537–546.
https://doi.org/10.1007/s12098-020-03322-y
Hugon, J., Msika, E. F., Queneau, M., Farid, K., & Paquet, C. (2022). Long COVID: cognitive
complaints (brain fog) and dysfunction of the cingulate cortex. Journal of neurology, 269(1),
44–46. https://doi.org/10.1007/s00415-021-10655-x