Research from the University of Washington revealed that COVID-19 lockdowns led to accelerated cortical thinning in adolescents, impacting brain development significantly.
This effect was more pronounced in females than males, raising concerns about long-term brain health. The study highlights the importance of social interactions during adolescence, a period critical for cognitive development and mental health, especially as social restrictions have exacerbated conditions like anxiety and depression among teenagers.
Impact of Lockdowns on Adolescent Brain Development
A recent study reported the somewhat alarming findings that the social disruptions of COVID-19 lockdowns caused significant changes in teenagers’ brains.
Researchers at the University of Washington in Seattle used MRI scans to examine the adolescent brain’s cortex — the folded outer layer responsible for complex thinking. They discovered that the typical age-related thinning of the cortex accelerated after the lockdowns, with girls showing more pronounced changes than boys.
What do these findings mean?
Science highlights adolescence as a critical stage for brain development. Many typical teenage behaviors stem from the brain cortex still maturing. During this period, key developmental processes occur, including the thinning of the cortex, which helps the brain become more efficient and better organized.
Groundbreaking research published in 2022 provided the first evidence of a crucial window of brain “plasticity” — its ability to adapt — in the frontal brain region. This area is essential for functions such as decision-making, problem-solving, short-term memory, and managing social behavior.
Given the evidence of this sensitivity of brain development in adolescence, is it possible that the pandemic lockdowns really did accelerate harmful brain aging in teenagers? And how strong is the evidence that it was due to the lockdowns and not something else?
To answer the first question, we have to realize that aging and development are two sides of the same coin. They are inextricably linked. On the one hand, biological aging is the progressive decline in the function of the body’s cells, tissues, and systems. On the other, development is the process by which we reach maturity.
Adverse conditions at critical periods of our life, especially adolescence, are very likely to influence our aging trajectory. It is therefore plausible that the “accelerated maturation” of the teenage brain cortex is an age-related change that will affect the rate of brain aging throughout life.
So it seems there is an unpalatable and much more serious conclusion: the reported accelerated maturation – though serious enough – is not a one-off detriment. It may well set a trajectory of adverse brain aging way beyond adolescence.
The Role of Social Interaction in Brain Health
Now to the second question: the role, if any, of the lockdowns. One of the central pillars of brain health is “social cognition”: the capacity of the brain to interact socially with others. It has been embedded in our brains for 1.5 million years. It is not an optional add-on. It is fundamentally important. Interfere with it and potentially devastating health consequences result, particularly in adolescents who depend on social interaction for normal cognitive development.
At the same time, adolescence is also a period of the emergence of many neuropsychiatric disorders, including anxiety and depression, with younger females at a higher risk of developing anxiety and mood disorders than males.
Devastating Consequences
The socially restrictive lockdown measures appear to have had a substantial negative effect on the mental health of teenagers, especially girls, and the new study provides a potential underlying cause.
There is little doubt that the pandemic lockdowns resulted in devastating health consequences for many people. To the litany of evidence, we may now add a particularly grim finding – that the developmental brain biology of our precious teenage population has been damaged by these measures.
But perhaps the main message is that the wider effects of single-issue health policies should be considered more carefully. In the case of the known damaging effects of social isolation and loneliness on brain health, it’s not as if the evidence wasn’t there.
Written by James Goodwin, Professor in the Physiology of Ageing, Loughborough University.
Adapted from an article originally published in The Conversation.
Reference: “COVID-19 lockdown effects on adolescent brain structure suggest accelerated maturation that is more pronounced in females than in males” by Neva M. Corrigan, Ariel Rokem and Patricia K. Kuhl, 9 September 2024, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
DOI: 10.1073/pnas.2403200121
News
Scientists May Have Found a Secret Weapon To Stop Pancreatic Cancer Before It Starts
Researchers at Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory have found that blocking the FGFR2 and EGFR genes can stop early-stage pancreatic cancer from progressing, offering a promising path toward prevention. Pancreatic cancer is expected to become [...]
Breakthrough Drug Restores Vision: Researchers Successfully Reverse Retinal Damage
Blocking the PROX1 protein allowed KAIST researchers to regenerate damaged retinas and restore vision in mice. Vision is one of the most important human senses, yet more than 300 million people around the world are at [...]
Differentiating cancerous and healthy cells through motion analysis
Researchers from Tokyo Metropolitan University have found that the motion of unlabeled cells can be used to tell whether they are cancerous or healthy. They observed malignant fibrosarcoma cells and [...]
This Tiny Cellular Gate Could Be the Key to Curing Cancer – And Regrowing Hair
After more than five decades of mystery, scientists have finally unveiled the detailed structure and function of a long-theorized molecular machine in our mitochondria — the mitochondrial pyruvate carrier. This microscopic gatekeeper controls how [...]
Unlocking Vision’s Secrets: Researchers Reveal 3D Structure of Key Eye Protein
Researchers have uncovered the 3D structure of RBP3, a key protein in vision, revealing how it transports retinoids and fatty acids and how its dysfunction may lead to retinal diseases. Proteins play a critical [...]
5 Key Facts About Nanoplastics and How They Affect the Human Body
Nanoplastics are typically defined as plastic particles smaller than 1000 nanometers. These particles are increasingly being detected in human tissues: they can bypass biological barriers, accumulate in organs, and may influence health in ways [...]
Measles Is Back: Doctors Warn of Dangerous Surge Across the U.S.
Parents are encouraged to contact their pediatrician if their child has been exposed to measles or is showing symptoms. Pediatric infectious disease experts are emphasizing the critical importance of measles vaccination, as the highly [...]
AI at the Speed of Light: How Silicon Photonics Are Reinventing Hardware
A cutting-edge AI acceleration platform powered by light rather than electricity could revolutionize how AI is trained and deployed. Using photonic integrated circuits made from advanced III-V semiconductors, researchers have developed a system that vastly [...]
A Grain of Brain, 523 Million Synapses, Most Complicated Neuroscience Experiment Ever Attempted
A team of over 150 scientists has achieved what once seemed impossible: a complete wiring and activity map of a tiny section of a mammalian brain. This feat, part of the MICrONS Project, rivals [...]
The Secret “Radar” Bacteria Use To Outsmart Their Enemies
A chemical radar allows bacteria to sense and eliminate predators. Investigating how microorganisms communicate deepens our understanding of the complex ecological interactions that shape our environment is an area of key focus for the [...]
Psychologists explore ethical issues associated with human-AI relationships
It's becoming increasingly commonplace for people to develop intimate, long-term relationships with artificial intelligence (AI) technologies. At their extreme, people have "married" their AI companions in non-legally binding ceremonies, and at least two people [...]
When You Lose Weight, Where Does It Actually Go?
Most health professionals lack a clear understanding of how body fat is lost, often subscribing to misconceptions like fat converting to energy or muscle. The truth is, fat is actually broken down into carbon [...]
How Everyday Plastics Quietly Turn Into DNA-Damaging Nanoparticles
The same unique structure that makes plastic so versatile also makes it susceptible to breaking down into harmful micro- and nanoscale particles. The world is saturated with trillions of microscopic and nanoscopic plastic particles, some smaller [...]
AI Outperforms Physicians in Real-World Urgent Care Decisions, Study Finds
The study, conducted at the virtual urgent care clinic Cedars-Sinai Connect in LA, compared recommendations given in about 500 visits of adult patients with relatively common symptoms – respiratory, urinary, eye, vaginal and dental. [...]
Challenging the Big Bang: A Multi-Singularity Origin for the Universe
In a study published in the journal Classical and Quantum Gravity, Dr. Richard Lieu, a physics professor at The University of Alabama in Huntsville (UAH), which is a part of The University of Alabama System, suggests that [...]
New drug restores vision by regenerating retinal nerves
Vision is one of the most crucial human senses, yet over 300 million people worldwide are at risk of vision loss due to various retinal diseases. While recent advancements in retinal disease treatments have [...]
