An ad hoc committee of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine will conduct a study addressing the following questions:

1. What is the current state of scientific evidence regarding the direct effects of SARS-CoV-2 infection on neurocognitive function across the lifespan, including children, adolescents, working-aged adults, and older adults?
2. Which cognitive domains are most consistently affected following SARS-CoV-2 infection, based on validated neuropsychological, educational, occupational, and functional metrics?
3. What evidence exists from laboratory, clinical, neuroimaging, neuropathological, and mechanistic studies regarding the biological pathways by which SARS-CoV-2 may affect neuronal function, neuroinflammation, cerebrovascular integrity, synaptic processes, or neurodevelopment?
4. How do neurocognitive outcomes differ by severity of initial infection, reinfection, and presence or absence of post-acute sequelae?
5. What is known about the impact of SARS-CoV-2 infection on children and adolescents, including effects on:

• Learning, academic performance, and school-based cognitive metrics
• Attention, executive function, memory, and developmental milestones
• Attendance, special education needs, and standardized testing outcomes, where studied
• Potential impact of such effects on acceptability for military recruitment, service and performance

• Occupational performance and functional capacity
• Complex cognitive tasks relevant to military and civilian work settings
• Aging trajectories and interactions with underlying medical conditions

• Neurocognitive impairment following infection
• Long COVID-associated cognitive symptoms
• Repeated infections and cumulative cognitive risk

The committee’s analysis will consider implications for:

• Force readiness, training, performance and retention
• Long-term health trajectories of service members
• Aging and medically complex veteran populations
• Occupational and cognitive demands specific to military service
• Health system planning within military and veteran contexts

The committee will develop a report with its findings and conclusions regarding the questions above; no recommendations will be developed.