Oh, what a time to be alive! In the midst of a global pandemic, some intrepid researchers decided to play detective with the elusive neurological symptoms of COVID-19 in kids. Because, you know, adults shouldn’t have all the fun with weird and wacky virus effects. So, they embarked on a thrilling journey through the digital stacks of every medical library they could find, from the Cochrane Library to Scopus, leaving no stone—or database—unturned.

They were looking for the crème de la crème of studies, the ones that were peer-reviewed and focused on the young’uns (under 18, to be precise) who had their first dance with SARS-CoV-2. And what did they find in this treasure trove of 222 articles? A whopping 19 studies that made the cut. Talk about a needle in a haystack!

Within these prestigious works, they discovered a veritable smorgasbord of retrospective observational studies, case series, a lone case report, and a single prospective cohort study. All in all, they had data on 6,985 mini humans, and guess what? A whole 12.8% of the hospitalized tykes had their brains go on a bit of a vacation, with symptoms ranging from “I’m so sleepy” to “Why can’t I move my muscles properly?” and the ever-popular “I’m just so darn irritable!”

And the cherry on top? Children, not to be outdone by their older counterparts, experienced more drowsiness and muscle weakness, while also cornering the market on agitation. Infants, on the other hand, were just not that into being irritable. Go figure.

So, what’s the takeaway from this epic saga of research? Kids with COVID-19 can get some pretty gnarly neurological issues, and it seems like their immune systems are throwing some kind of bizarre party. But hey, at least we’re starting to get the guest list sorted out.