The COVID-19 pandemic may have aged our brains, even in individuals who never contracted the virus, according to a new study. Researchers from the University of Nottingham report that the social, emotional, and financial upheaval caused by the pandemic accelerated brain ageing across the population, leaving a neurological mark that may still be unfolding.
Published in Nature Communications, the study used artificial intelligence to analyse brain scans from more than 15,000 adults in the UK Biobank. The AI model was trained to detect normal, age-related changes in the brain and then applied to compare individuals who had undergone scans before the pandemic with those who had scans both before and during the pandemic years.
The results were striking: during the pandemic, the average human brain aged five and a half months faster than it did before 2020. This acceleration was observed even among individuals who had never contracted COVID-19.
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“What surprised me most was that even people who hadn’t had COVID showed significant increases in brain ageing rates,” said Dr. Ali-Reza Mohammadi-Nejad, the study’s lead author. “It shows how much the experience of the pandemic itself, everything from isolation to uncertainty, may have affected our brain health.”
The researchers noted that while the structural signs of brain ageing were present, cognitive function, such as memory or thinking ability, was not necessarily impaired in these individuals. The only measurable declines in cognitive performance were seen in those who had contracted the virus.
Still, the neurological changes were not uniform. The study found that older adults, men, and socially or economically disadvantaged individuals showed the most pronounced signs of brain ageing. Among young people, especially teenage girls, earlier studies found cortical thinning, a sign of accelerated brain maturation that resembles changes seen in children exposed to trauma or chronic stress.
Although the current findings are based on only two brain scan time points, researchers believe there may be hope for neurological recovery. “We can’t yet test whether the changes we saw will reverse, but it’s certainly possible,” said neurologist Dr. Dorothee Auer.
The authors caution that long-term studies are needed to understand whether these structural changes affect behaviour or mental health in the long run. Previous research has linked social isolation and poverty, both widespread during the pandemic, to changes in brain structure.
