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The following is a summary of “Procedural Motor Memory Deficits in Patients With Long-COVID,” published in the January 2024 issue of Neurology by Hayward et al.

Researchers started a retrospective study to determine if long-COVID patients can acquire and consolidate a new motor skill over 2 days, focusing on early learning and other performance metrics.

They conducted a case-control study where Long-COVID patients (experiencing symptoms for over 4 weeks) were matched with controls recruited during the pandemic. Criteria included age 18–90, English proficiency, right-handedness, left-hand typing ability, and no prior task exposure. Data were compared with age-matched, sex-matched pre-pandemic controls.

The results showed 236 contacted patients, 105 agreed to participate, and completed the experiment (mean age 46 ± 12.8 years, 82% female). Each healthy control group comprised 105 participants (mean age 46 ± 13.1 and 46 ± 11.9 years, 82% female). Across groups, early learning rates were comparable (Long-COVID: 0.36 ± 0.24 correct sequences/second, pandemic controls: 0.36 ± 0.53, pre-pandemic controls: 0.38 ± 0.57, patients vs pandemic controls [CI −0.068 to 0.067], vs prepandemic controls [CI −0.084 to 0.052], and between controls [CI −0.083 to 0.053], P=0.82). Patients had slower typing speeds on days 1 and 2 than controls. Long-COVID patients showed reduced overnight consolidation, suggesting a trend of lower learning rates.

Investigators concluded that long-term COVID patients matched controls in initial learning but showed hints of early processing issues and weaker overnight skill consolidation.

Source: neurology.org/doi/10.1212/WNL.0000000000208073