Behold, “pandemic fog” — or maybe you already have it

“We’re all walking around with some mild cognitive impairment,” says UC Irvine-based neuroscientist Mike Yassa. “Based on everything we know about the brain, two of the things that are really good for it are physical activity and novelty. A thing that’s very bad for it is chronic and perpetual stress.” The pandemic is, “is exposing people to microdoses of unpredictable stress all the time,” Yassa says, which takes its toll on the regions of the brain dealing with learning and memory.