Researchers found that changes were most noticeable among the brains of older individuals, men, and people from disadvantaged backgrounds, such as those unemployed and having lower incomes or education
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Experiencing the COVID-19 pandemic may have accelerated brain ageing by five and a half months, regardless of one's infection status, according to a new study, which researchers said point to the indirect effects of aspects such as isolation and uncertainty.
The researchers, led by those from the University of Nottingham, analysed brain scans of adults in the UK taken before and after the pandemic.
They found that changes were most noticeable among the brains of older individuals, men, and people from disadvantaged backgrounds, such as those unemployed and having lower incomes or education.
However, brain ageing was found to impact cognitive function, with 'brain fog' and difficulty in focussing being common symptoms, only in those who were infected with COVID-19, suggesting that brain ageing alone may not necessarily produce symptoms.
The findings, published in the journal Nature Communications, highlight "how much the experience of the pandemic itself, everything from isolation to uncertainty, may have affected our brain health," said lead researcher Ali-Reza Mohammadi-Nejad, research fellow at the university's faculty of medicine and health sciences.
"What surprised me most was that even people who hadn't had Covid showed significant increases in brain ageing rates," Mohammadi-Nejad added.
According to the authors, the pandemic-related brain ageing "may be at least partially reversible", but being strongly linked with socio-economic deprivation, the policies addressing inequalities are urgently needed, given that existing gaps widened during this time.
AI-powered models which were used for predicting brain age were first trained on magnetic resonance image (MRI) brain scans of over 15,000 healthy people from the UK Biobank. The models thus learnt to measure the 'brain age gap' i.e. how much one's brain age differed from their actual age.
The models were then employed to analyse two scans of the brains of 996 healthy participants, in 564 people (controls) both the scans were taken before the pandemic, while in the 'Pandemic' group consisting of 432 individuals, one scan was taken before and one after.
"The 'Pandemic' group shows on average (a) 5.5-month higher deviation of brain age gap at the second time point, compared with controls," the authors wrote.
They also found that "accelerated brain ageing is more pronounced in males and those from deprived socio-demographic backgrounds and these deviations exist regardless of SARS-CoV-2 (virus that causes COVID-19) infection."
Further, cognitive tests taken at the time of both scans revealed that an "accelerated brain ageing correlates with reduced cognitive performance only in COVID-infected participants."
Senior author Dorothee Auer, professor of neuroimaging at the University of Nottingham, said "This study reminds us that brain health is shaped not only by illness, but by our everyday environment."
"The pandemic put a strain on people's lives, especially those already facing disadvantage. We can't yet test whether the changes we saw will reverse, but it's certainly possible, and that's an encouraging thought," Auer said.
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