The influence of COVID-19 on some psychophysiological parameters of medical students

Introduction: there is enough data on the negative influence of the new coronavirus infection on physical, mental, and social well-being. COVID-related changes in the central nervous system and components of mental health are the most relevant, along with autonomic disorders. Aims: this paper was aimed at identifying the impact of COVID-19 on some psychophysiological parameters in medical students. Materials and methods: the study involved male students from 19 to 20 years of age. The first group consisted of people with a history of coronavirus infection (n = 50), and the second group consisted of those who did not have it (n = 50). The following parameters were measured: anxiety, well-being, activity, mood, attention, short-term visual memory, auditory memory, and visual-motor response. The severity and duration of COVID-19 were established with a special questionnaire. Statistical processing of data was performed in the Statistica 6.1 program. Results: there were significantly more respondents with high personal anxiety among people with a history of COVID-19. Changes in well-being, activity, and mood typical of subjects from this group indicated increased fatigue. This was confirmed by lower performance in the Assessment of attention test, which indicated the onset of fatigue. The volume of short-term auditory memory was significantly lower in students with a history of COVID-19 compared to those who did not have COVID-19. The results obtained in the simple visual-motor response test showed no significant differences in the activation of the central nervous system between groups. The results obtained in the test with light stimuli showed differences in the stability of responses. Conclusion: significant differences in some psychophysiological parameters of second-year medical students with a history of COVID-19 compared to the control group confirmed that coronavirus infection affected cognitive functions. In particular, in this population, this can result in reduced academic performance.