Brains aged faster during the Covid pandemic – even the uninfected
9 months ago
- #brain aging
- #neuroscience
- #COVID-19
- The COVID-19 pandemic accelerated brain aging in healthy individuals, even those not infected, according to a study of nearly 1,000 people.
- Brain scans showed structural changes indicating faster aging, particularly in older individuals, males, and those from disadvantaged backgrounds.
- Cognitive decline was only observed in participants who contracted COVID-19, suggesting faster brain aging doesn't always impair thinking and memory.
- The study, published in Nature Communications, used machine-learning models to predict brain age based on structural features from UK Biobank data.
- Participants who lived through the pandemic showed brains aging 5.5 months faster on average than the control group, regardless of COVID-19 infection.