Brain ageing was found to impact cognitive function, with 'brain fog' and difficulty in focussing being common symptoms
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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