The brains of teenagers aged faster than normal during the pandemic, according to a new study.
Research found the stress of Covid lockdowns sped up brain maturation in teens by as much as three years. Data also revealed an increase in mental health problems like depression and anxiety.
According to the study, brain scans of teenagers who lived through the pandemic showed signs of premature ageing and changes to the part of the brain that controls the ability to pay attention, plan and reason.
Researchers described a reduced thickness in the cerebral cortex and a growth in the amygdala, which regulates fear and stress, and the hippocampus, which controls access to memories. They say these changes are “more typical of individuals who are older or who experienced significant adversity in childhood”.
"Given the stress of the pandemic we had expected poorer mental health," said Ian Gotlib, a professor of psychology at Stanford University and first author of the study.
"We didn't know whether the lockdown would alter brain development in a relatively short period of time, but thought it might, and it seems that adolescents' brains have aged about three years faster than they were doing in same-age adolescents before the pandemic."
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The study originally started eight years ago to look at gender differences in rates of depression. Brain scans were taken every two years by the study, but were unfortunately halted by the pandemic.
Once the study resumed, researchers analysed the brain scans of 81 teenagers from the San Francisco Bay Area of California taken before the pandemic and compared them to scans of 82 teenagers taken during the pandemic and after the Bay Area lockdown.
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