Fear and Worry Over COVID-19 can Lead to Impaired Cognitive Function

People more worried about COVID-19 and its effects performed worse at information processing tests and had a distorted view of risk levels.

Worries and anxiety over the COVID-19 pandemic can impair basic cognitive functions, leading to poorer decision making, delays in mental processing speed, and alteration of the perception of risk. This finding is found in a study published in in the open-access journal PLOS ONE.

The study, conducted by McGill University and the Montreal Neurological Institute-Hospital, surveyed 1,500 Americans online from April to June 2020.

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‘Understanding the changes in the ability to think, plan, and evaluate risks in a global COVID-19 pandemic are important for managing stressful situation.’

Researchers found that people surveyed in June 2020 performed worse than pre-pandemic groups and exhibited slower processing speed, lower task-switching accuracy, and were more sensitive to risk.

'The basic cognitive abilities measured here are crucial for healthy daily living and decision-making,' said study author and McGill graduate student Kevin da Silva Castanheira in a statement released by the Canadian university.

Participants were asked to rate their level of worry and complete an information processing test where they had to match pairs of digits and symbols according to a fixed rule.

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To measure risk preferences, researchers used a 'classic economic choice task' in which participants had to make a series of hypothetical choices between a 'certain' option, like winning $75, and a ‘risky’ option, like a 25 percent chance of winning $0 and a 75 percent chance of winning $100.

Individuals reporting greater pandemic-related worry appeared more sensitive to described risk levels. The relationship between sensitivity to outcome probabilities and individual worry remained even after controlling for demographic variables, and perceived risk of contracting COVID-19.

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The more anxious participants may be more sensitive to risk because they're more likely to seek out information, resulting in greater exposure to the media, which often discusses risk.

The data collected during the pandemic was compared to results from the same tests completed by different people before the pandemic.

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As the pandemic progressed, test-takers in the third wave showed slower processing speeds, a lower ability to maintain goals in mind, and were more sensitive to risk than those in the first wave.

The persistently impaired task performance may reflect the impact of prolonged (i.e. chronic) exposure to stress or a shift in the sources of worry.

An important future direction will be to examine why some people are more sensitive than others to stress and to identify coping strategies that help to protect from the effects of stress.

Source-Medindia