Cognitive performance and narrative discourse after SARS-CoV-2 infectionPurpose: to evaluate cognitive performance and narrative discourse, as well as possible associations in individuals affected by COVID-19.
Methods: a cross-sectional exploratory research involving individuals infected by COVID-19 and hospitalized in the State of Sergipe. Participants underwent anamnesis, the Mini-Mental State Examination, Neupsilin and Montreal Toulouse Language Assessment Battery Collection (MTL/Brazil). The statistical tests employed were the Shapiro-Wilk test to assess the normality of data distribution, the nonparametric Mann-Whitney test for comparing two independent samples, and Spearman's correlation to evaluate the monotonic relationship between variables. The significance level was set at P < 0.05
Results: thirty-two individuals participated in the anamnesis (75% males, 25% females). A significant correlation was found between the working memory and discourse skills (P < 0.01). Discourse analysis using the Mann-Whitney test revealed significant differences in the total number of scenes (P = 0.005; d = 0.5) and the total number of Information Units (P = 0.017; d = 0.3). These findings suggest that COVID-19 has a substantial impact on speech, affecting verbal fluency, auditory span, digit sequencing, and working memory, thereby influencing memory storage and retrieval processes.
Conclusion: the impact of the pandemic in this area covers a wide range of cognitive and discursive skills.
Keywords:
SARS-CoV-2; Cognition; Memory; Language
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