A new study provides additional evidence that COVID-19 can damage parts of the brain. The study said that even people with mild sickness can suffer brain tissue shrinkage and damage to areas that control smell. The research was led by scientists at Britain’s Oxford University. The researchers said their study provides “strong evidence” of “brain-related abnormalities in COVID-19.” The team noted that past studies have also found links between COVID-19 and changes to the brain. But those studies centered mainly on COVID-19 patients who were hospitalized with severe sickness. The latest study recently appeared in the publication Nature. The team said further study is needed to find out whether the brain changes are long lasting and can be fixed. The study involved 785 subjects in Britain between the ages of 51 and 81. All were given two brain scans to measure differences during the experiment. A total of 401 subjects were found to be infected with COVID-19 between the scans. Most of them had only minor sickness. The researchers reported a number of brain effects in the patients. The subjects experienced the effects, on average, four-and-a-half months after infection. The changes included “a greater reduction in gray matter thickness” after individuals were infected with COVID-19. Gray matter in the brain helps people control movement, memory and emotions. The greatest reduction was seen in areas of the brain linked to smell. In addition, some infected patients also showed “a reduction in whole brain size,” the researchers reported.