
Decoding Long COVID's Impact on the Brain with Igor Koralnik, MD
From Breakthroughs by Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine
March 23, 2026 · 31 min
About this episode
Igor Koralnik discusses the neurological impacts of long COVID and recent findings related to Parkinson's disease.
Our understanding of how viral infections can affect the brain has changed dramatically in recent years, and the COVID-19 pandemic and research into long COVID has accelerated some of this new knowledge. Igor Koralnik, MD, chief of Neuro-Infectious Diseases and Global Neurology in the Department of Neurology at Feinberg has studied the long-term neurological effects of COVID-19 and developed tools to support patient recovery. In this episode, Koralnik shares the latest research on long COVID and talks about recent findings from his lab identifying a common virus in the brains of some patients with Parkinson's disease that may influence how Parkinson's develops.
People in this episode
Guests: Igor Koralnik, MD, Igor Koralnik
Topics covered
- long COVID
- neurological effects
- viral infections
- patient recovery
- Parkinson's disease
- research
Keywords
- long COVID
- brain
- neurology
- viral infections
- patient recovery
- Parkinson's disease
- research
Mentioned in this episode
Organizations: Feinberg School of Medicine, Department of Neurology, COVID-19, Parkinson's disease
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