A study has revealed that the COVID-19 pandemic has sped up adolescent brain aging, with the effects being more pronounced in females.
According to NBC News, researchers from the University of Washington’s Institute for Learning & Brain Sciences (I-LABS) found that adolescent brain maturation has accelerated due to lockdowns. The study revealed that female brains aged an average of 4.2 years faster, while male adolescents’ brains aged 1.4 years faster.
The research team analyzed MRI scans on the brains of 160 adolescents aged 9 to 17, taken between 2018 and 2021, focusing on changes in the thickness of the cerebral cortex. This region, which manages responsible, long-term memory, perception, and judgment, naturally thins with age.
During the pandemic, chronic stress and negative life events appear to have accelerated the thinning of the cerebral cortex. Female adolescents showed significant aging in both hemispheres of the brain, while male adolescents exhibited changes only in the visual cortex of the occipital lobe.
The research team suggested that these gender differences could be due to variations in socialization and the social stress experienced through platforms such as social media.
Patricia Kuhl, the leader of the study, noted that the pandemic had a more significant impact on female adolescents. She further explained that although isolation affected all adolescents, females suffered more severely.
Kuhl emphasized the importance of additional research, noting that more studies are needed to confirm whether the lockdown measures directly caused these changes.
The team highlighted their findings as an illustration of the pandemic’s devastating effects on adolescents and called for further exploration into the factors contributing to brain aging. They also noted that female students tend to rely more on their friends for stress relief.
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