Did COVID accelerate brain ageing among teens?

Although the COVID-19 pandemic is now over, its impacts on teens are still seen today.

According to University of Washington researchers, the coronavirus lockdowns — including school closures, postponed sports, and stay-at-home drills — accelerated adolescent brain ageing by as much as four years.

A new study, published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, adds to evidence that the social restrictions had a disproportionate impact on them.

Here’s what the study says.

Accelerated brain ageing in teens

Both boys’ and girls’ MRI scans revealed evidence of early brain ageing, but following lockdowns, girls’ brains appeared 4.2 years older on average than expected, compared to 1.4 years older for boys.

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The findings have sparked worries about how they can impact teenagers’ mental health and learning ability.

“We were shocked by these data, that the difference is so dramatic,” said Prof Patricia Kuhl, co-director of the Institute for Learning and Brain Sciences at the University of Washington, in Seattle.

The researchers from the University’s Institute for Learning and Brain Sciences (I-LABS) gathered MRI scans from 160 nine- to 17-year-olds in 2018 and used them to build a model of how the brain’s cortex normally thins during school years, according to The Guardian.

As the adolescent brain develops and becomes more specialised, there is a normal and significant amount of cortical thinning.

Lead researcher Patricia Kuhl, co-director of I-LABS, clarified that because follow-up scans were postponed until 2021 due to lockdowns starting in 2020, the study’s focus shifted to look at the pandemic’s effects on teenage brain structure.

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“The findings are an important wake-up call about the fragility of the teenage brain. Teens need our support now more than ever,” she told, as per CNN.

Gender-wise ageing

According to the authors, the thickness of the cerebral cortex naturally peaks during childhood, gradually declines during adolescence, and then continues to shrink throughout an individual’s lifespan.

“As we age, cortical thinning is linked to slower processing and less flexible thinking,” Kuhl said.

However, the three-year study found that teens’ post-pandemic brains had accelerated cortical thinning, which was seen in only two regions for boys and 30 regions for girls in both hemispheres and all lobes.

For girls and boys, the corresponding percentage of the examined brain areas with thinning was 43 per cent and six per cent, respectively.

Although other researchers have connected the pandemic to early brain ageing, this study is the first to show clear disparities between boys and girls.

Signs of accelerated ageing in a visual-related brain region were observed in both genders, which may have an impact on face processing.

However, broad brain alterations were seen in females.

The researchers claim that language understanding, facial expression interpretation, and emotion processing are among the many impacted areas that support social cognition and are essential for effective communication.

According to Kuhl, the reason for the disparity can be in the way boys and girls depend on social connection.

Girls tend to rely more on human interactions for identity and emotional support, while boys are more likely to engage through physical activities like sports, as per India Today.

Although further research is required to determine whether brain ageing impacts cognitive function, Kuhl points out that early cortical thinning is associated with a higher risk of neuropsychiatric disorders and early life stress.

‘A reminder of the fragility of teens’

Kuhl advised parents to have a conversation with their adolescents about their experiences during the pandemic, stating that the findings serve as a “reminder of the fragility of teens.”

“It’s important they invite their teens for a coffee, for a tea, for a walk, to open the door to conversation. Whatever it takes to get them to open up,” she said, as per The Guardian.

“It’s important to recognise that although the pandemic is largely over, the effects of the stress of the pandemic are still there for children and adolescents,” the report quoted Ian Gotlib, a professor of psychology at Stanford University, who reported similar brain changes.

“Making sure that youth are supported in terms of their mental health is critical, perhaps now more than ever before.”

With inputs from agencies