SAN JOSE, Calif. — A Stanford University study published Thursday found that stress from the COVID-19 pandemic prematurely aged adolescents’ brains, making them more like those of peers about three years older.
By comparing MRI scans from children taken before the pandemic with scans from other kids taken during the pandemic, the study found that changes in brain structure that occur naturally with age sped up in adolescents as they experienced the COVID-19 lockdowns. That could have lasting implications for those youths’ if the changes are found to be more than temporary.
“We know developmentally that brains change over time, that’s not at all a surprise,” said Stanford Professor of Psychology Ian Gotlib, lead author of the study published in the journal Biological Psychiatry: Global Open Science. “What was surprising here was how quickly these changes occurred in adolescents as a result of the pandemic.”
