During adolescence, the brain undergoes significant structural changes, which are highly dependent on environmental factors. Until now, few studies have investigated how the COVID-19 pandemic lockdowns affected brain structural development in adolescence. In the current study, researchers assessed the impact of COVID-19 pandemic lockdowns on adolescent brain structure.
The study began in 2018 as a longitudinal study of 160 participants aged between 9 and 17 years old. Originally, the researchers set out to evaluate brain changes during typical adolescence. Once the pandemic was underway, however, they changed the focus of their research to how the pandemic lockdown affected brain development.
The researchers collected MRI scans of participants’ brains in 2018 and again in 2021, after lockdowns. Pre-COVID data was used to generate a normative model of cortical thickness change during typical adolescent development and was then compared with the values from the post-COVID data collection.
Brain maturation is assessed via the thickness of the cerebral cortex. As people age, the cortex becomes thinner. Chronic stress and adversity are known to accelerate this process, which is linked to a higher risk of neuropsychiatric and behavioral disorders.
Ultimately, the researchers found that the pandemic accelerated the thinning of the cerebral cortex. The changes were especially prominent in females, who experienced an equivalent 4.2 years of accelerated brain aging compared to 1.4 years in males. Cortical thinning effects were observed in all regions of the female brain, whereas the same effects were only seen in the visual cortex of males.
To explain the findings, senior study author, Patricia Kuhl, co-director of the University of Washington Institute for Learning and Brain Sciences, noted in a press release that female teenagers rely more heavily on relationships with other girls to talk and share feelings, whereas boys tend to gather for physical activity.
“It is possible that there might be some recovery. On the other hand, it’s also possible to imagine that brain maturation will remain accelerated in these teens,” said Kuhl.
“The pandemic provided a test case for the fragility of teenagers’ brains. 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,” she concluded.
Sources: Neuroscience News, PNAS