March 8 (Reuters) - COVID-19 can cause the brain to shrink, reduce grey matter in the regions that control emotion and memory, and damage areas that control the sense of smell, an Oxford University study has found.

3月8日(路透社)：牛津大学的一项研究发现，新冠病毒(COVID-19)会导致大脑萎缩，减少大脑内控制情绪和记忆的灰质，并损害控制嗅觉的区域。

The scientists said that the effects were even seen in people who had not been hospitalised with COVID, and whether the impact could be partially reversed or if they would persist in the long term needed further investigation.

科学家们表示，这些影响甚至在没有因新冠住院的人身上也被观测到，而这种影响是否可以部分逆转以及它们是否会长期存在，需要进一步的调查。

"There is strong evidence for brain-related abnormalities in COVID-19," the researchers said in their study, which was released on Monday.

"存在强有力的证据表明新冠病毒(COVID-19)与大脑相关的异常现象有关。"研究人员在周一发布的研究中说道。

Even in mild cases, participants in the research showed "a worsening of executive function" responsible for focus and organising, and on an average brain sizes shrank between 0.2% and 2%.

即使是在影响轻微的案例中，这项研究参与者的集中精神和组织能力都产生了"执行功能的恶化"，其大脑大小平均缩小了0.2%至2%。

The peer-reviewed study, published in the Nature journal, investigated brain changes in 785 participants aged 51–81whose brains were scanned twice, including 401 people who caught COVID between their two scans. The second scan was done on average 141 days after the first scan.

这项经过同行评议的研究，发表在了《自然》这本杂志上。其调查了785名年龄在51-81岁之间的参与者的大脑变化。研究期间，他们的大脑被扫描了两次，其中有401名参与者在两次扫描之间感染了新冠。二次大脑扫描间的时差平均为141天。

The study was conducted when the Alpha variant was dominant in Britain and is unlikely to include anyone infected with the Delta variant.

该研究进行时，英国境内主要是新冠病毒阿尔法变异株，参与者中不太可能包括任何感染德尔塔变体的人。

Studies have found some people who had COVID suffered from "brain fog" or mental cloudiness that included impairment to attention, concentration, speed of information processing and memory.

研究发现，一些新冠病患产生了"脑雾"或精神混乱的现象，包括注意力、集中力、信息处理速度和记忆力的受损。

The researchers did not say if vaccination against COVID had any impact on the condition but the UK Health Security Agency said last month that a review of 15 studies found that vaccinated people were about half as likely to develop symptoms of long COVID compared with the unvaccinated.

研究人员并没有说接种新冠疫苗是否会改善这种现象。但是在上个月，英国卫生安全局表示，在对15项研究进行审查后发现：与未接种疫苗的人相比，接种疫苗的人出现这些症状的可能性大约减少了一半。