Summary: A University of Washington study reveals that pandemic lockdowns accelerated brain maturation in adolescents, with girls experiencing more pronounced effects than boys.
Estimated reading time: 6 minutes
The COVID-19 pandemic disrupted lives worldwide, but its impact on teenagers may have been more profound than initially thought. A new study from the University of Washington (UW) suggests that pandemic lockdowns didn’t just affect teens’ social lives and mental health – they also sped up the aging process in their brains.
The research, published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, found that adolescents who lived through pandemic lockdowns showed signs of accelerated brain maturation. This effect was particularly pronounced in girls, whose brains appeared to age an average of 4.2 years faster than expected. Boys’ brains showed less dramatic changes, aging about 1.4 years faster on average.
“We think of the COVID-19 pandemic as a health crisis,” said Patricia Kuhl, senior author and co-director of the UW Institute for Learning & Brain Sciences (I-LABS). “But we know that it produced other profound changes in our lives, especially for teenagers.”
Why it matters: This accelerated brain aging could have long-term implications for adolescents’ mental health and cognitive development. Understanding these changes is crucial for developing targeted support strategies for the generation that came of age during the pandemic.
The unexpected impact of isolation
The study began in 2018 as a long-term project to track normal brain development in teenagers. When the pandemic hit, the researchers realized they had a unique opportunity to study how this global event affected adolescent brains.
Using brain scans from before and after the pandemic, the team measured changes in the thickness of the cerebral cortex – the outer layer of the brain that thins naturally as we age. They found that this thinning process had accelerated dramatically in the post-lockdown scans, particularly in girls.
“Once the pandemic was underway, we started to think about which brain measures would allow us to estimate what the pandemic lockdown had done to the brain,” said Neva Corrigan, lead author and research scientist at I-LABS. “What did it mean for our teens to be at home rather than in their social groups – not at school, not playing sports, not hanging out?”
The gender gap in brain changes
One of the most striking findings was the difference between male and female brains. Girls showed widespread accelerated thinning across all lobes of the brain, while boys only showed significant changes in the visual cortex.
Kuhl suggests this gender difference might be due to how boys and girls typically socialize:
“Female teenagers often rely more heavily on the relationships with other girls, prioritizing the ability to gather, talk to each other and share feelings. Boys tend to gather for physical activity,” she explained. “Teenagers really are walking a tightrope, trying to get their lives together. They’re under tremendous pressure. Then a global pandemic strikes and their normal channels of stress release are gone.”
Long-term implications and future research
The accelerated brain aging observed in this study raises important questions about the long-term effects on cognitive function and mental health. While the cerebral cortex is unlikely to thicken again, Kuhl notes that recovery might take the form of slower thinning over time as normal social interactions resume.
“It is possible that there might be some recovery,” Kuhl said. “On the other hand, it’s also possible to imagine that brain maturation will remain accelerated in these teens.”
The researchers emphasize that more studies are needed to understand the full implications of these changes. Future research may focus on how these structural brain changes correlate with cognitive function and mental health outcomes in the affected generation.
“The pandemic provided a test case for the fragility of teenagers’ brains,” Kuhl concluded. “Our research introduces a new set of questions about what it means to speed up the aging process in the brain. All the best research raises profound new questions, and I think that’s what we’ve done here.”
As we continue to navigate the aftermath of the COVID-19 pandemic, this study underscores the importance of supporting adolescents’ mental health and social development. It also highlights the need for continued research to fully understand and address the long-term impacts of this unprecedented global event on the developing brain.
Quiz:
- According to the study, how much faster did girls’ brains appear to age on average due to pandemic lockdowns?
- What part of the brain did researchers measure to assess accelerated aging?
- Why might girls have been more affected by lockdowns than boys, according to the researchers?
Answer Key:
- Girls’ brains appeared to age an average of 4.2 years faster than expected.
- Researchers measured changes in the thickness of the cerebral cortex.
- Researchers suggest that girls typically rely more heavily on social relationships and talking with peers for stress relief, which were more limited during lockdowns.
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