Disentangling the cognitive, physical, and mental health sequelae of COVID-19

As COVID-19 cases exceed hundreds of millions globally, many survivors face cognitive challenges and pro-longed symptoms. However, important questions about the cognitive effects of COVID-19 remain unre-solved. In this cross-sectional online study, 478 adult volunteers who self-reported a positive test for COVID-19 (mean = 30 days since most recent test) perform significantly worse than pre-pandemic norms on cognitive measures of processing speed, reasoning, verbal, and overall performance, but not short-term memory, suggesting domain-specific deficits. Cognitive differences are even observed in participants who did not require hospitalization. Factor analysis of health-and COVID-related questionnaires reveals two clusters of symptoms-one that varies mostly with physical symptoms and illness severity, and one with mental health. Cognitive performance is positively correlated with the global measure encompassing phys-ical symptoms, but not the one that broadly describes mental health, suggesting that the subjective experi-ence of "long COVID"relates to physical symptoms and cognitive deficits, especially executive dysfunction.