Covid pandemic altered teens' brains, study finds

These sorts of accelerated changes in "brain age" have appeared only in children who have experienced chronic adversity.

A new study suggested that pandemic-related stressors have physically aged brains of adolescents', according to a study.

The new findings indicate that the neurological and mental health effects of the pandemic on adolescents may have been even worse, the study said. They have been published in the journal Biological Psychiatry: Global Open Science.

In 2020 alone, according to the study by Stanford University, US, reports of anxiety and depression in adults rose by more than 25% compared to previous years.

"We already know from global research that the pandemic has adversely affected mental health in youth, but we didn't know what, if anything, it was doing physically to their brains," said first author on the paper, Ian Gotlib, Stanford University.

Changes in brain structure occur naturally as we age, Gotlib noted.

During puberty and early teenage years, kids' bodies experience increased growth in both the hippocampus and the amygdala, areas of the brain that respectively control access to certain memories and help to modulate emotions. At the same time, tissues in the cortex, an area involved in executive functioning, become thinner.

By comparing MRI scans from a cohort of 163 children taken before and during the pandemic, Gotlib's study showed that this developmental process sped up in adolescents as they experienced the COVID-19 lockdowns.