Central Nervous System Manifestations of COVID-19: A Critical Review and Proposed Research Agenda.

OBJECTIVE: On March 11, 2020, the World Health Organization declared an outbreak of a new viral entity, coronavirus 2019 (COVID-19), to be a worldwide pandemic. The characteristics of this virus, as well as its short- and long-term implications, are not yet well understood. The objective of the current paper was to provide a critical review of the emerging literature on COVID-19 and its implications for neurological, neuropsychiatric, and cognitive functioning. METHOD: A critical review of recently published empirical research, case studies, and reviews pertaining to central nervous system (CNS) complications of COVID-19 was conducted by searching PubMed, PubMed Central, Google Scholar, and bioRxiv. RESULTS: After considering the available literature, areas thought to be most pertinent to clinical and research neuropsychologists, including CNS manifestations, neurologic symptoms/syndromes, neuroimaging, and potential long-term implications of COVID-19 infection, were reviewed. CONCLUSION: Once thought to be merely a respiratory virus, the scientific and medical communities have realized COVID-19 to have broader effects on renal, vascular, and neurological body systems. The question of cognitive deficits is not yet well studied, but neuropsychologists will undoubtedly play an important role in the years to come.

Emory university telehealth neuropsychology development and implementation in response to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Objectives: Emory University has modified its clinical practices across specialties in response to the 2020 COVID-19 pandemic to provide service delivery while maintaining patient, staff, and faculty safety. This report shares current solutions and workarounds associated with telehealth neuropsychology (teleNP) while also recognizing teleNP opportunities.Results: We modified many measures from our traditional assessment protocols so they could be administered through Zoom. To maximize quality control, formal how-to coversheets and manuals were developed for both training and task administration (i.e. navigating Zoom assessment interfaces, practicing adapted test instructions, and troubleshooting).Conclusions: TeleNP has been successfully used to answer referral questions regarding deep brain stimulation (DBS) candidacy in Parkinson's disease patients and presence of mild neurocognitive impairment in patients with subjective memory decline. Our current protocols will continue to evolve with greater experience and are not considered to be a finished product. Nevertheless, development of robust teleNP protocols should expand availability of neuropsychology in both clinical and research applications while simultaneously decreasing assessment burden associated with traveling - sometimes long distances - for diagnostic neuropsychological evaluation.