Mild COVID-19 cases were linked to changes in the brain in a newly published study. Approximately 785 people underwent a brain scan and about half later tested positive for COVID-19. All the people got a second brain scan, including those who had survived the disease. Researchers from the Wellcome Centre for Integrative Neuroimaging at the University of Oxford analyzed the scans and found the participants infected with COVID-19 had a greater reduction in the thickness of grey matter, which helps humans perform various functions such as making decisions, and other negative outcomes. “Despite the infection being mild for 96% of our participants, we saw a greater loss of grey matter volume, and greater tissue damage in the infected participants, on average 4.5 months after infection,” professor Gwenaëlle Douaud, the study’s lead author, said in a statement. “They also showed greater decline in their mental abilities to perform complex tasks, and this mental worsening …