A recent study found that the brains of healthy people aged faster during the COVID-19 pandemic, even in people who were not infected. The study, published in the journal Nature Communications, looked at the brain scans of 15,334 healthy adults with an average age of 63 years from the UK Biobank (UKBB).
Several studies have earlier found that SARS-CoV-2 infections have led to neurodegeneration and cognitive decline in older people. However, this study now focuses on how people were affected by the pandemic, which led to social isolation, lifestyle disruptions and stress.
What does the study reveal?
The researchers found that the accelerated ageing, recorded as structural changes seen in brain scans, was most noticeable in older people, male participants and those from disadvantaged backgrounds.
However, cognitive tests showed that mental agility had reduced only in people who were affected with COVID-19. This shows that faster brain ageing doesn’t necessarily mean impaired thinking and memory.
Mahdi Moqri, a computational biologist who studies ageing at Harvard Medical School in Boston, Massachusetts said that the study “really underlines how significant the pandemic environment was for mental and neurological health.”
Moqri added that it's unclear whether the pandemic-associated brain ageing is reversible, because the study analysed scans taken at only two time points.
Impact of the pandemic
For the study, Ali-Reza Mohammadi-Nejad, a neuroimaging researcher at the University of Nottingham, UK and co-author of the study and his colleagues analysed brain scans.
According to a report in NBC News, Ali-Reza Mohammadi-Nejad said that the scans highlight that brain health is not shaped solely by illness, but also by broader life experiences.
The researchers found a 5.5-month acceleration in ageing linked to the pandemic. On average, the difference in brain ageing between men and women was small, about 2.5 months.
Mohammadi-Nejad said, “We don’t yet know exactly why, but this fits with other research suggesting that men may be more affected by certain types of stress or health challenges.”
The researchers say that the study wasn’t designed to pinpoint specific causes. “But it is likely that the cumulative experience of the pandemic—including psychological stress, social isolation, disruptions in daily life, reduced activity and wellness—contributed to the observed changes,” Mohammadi-Nejad said. “In this sense, the pandemic period itself appears to have left a mark on our brains, even in the absence of infection.”
ALSO READ: Kelley Mack’s death puts focus on CNS glioma: What you should know
