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The Pandemic Appears to Have Accelerated Brain Aging, Even in People Who Never Got Covid


Stress, isolation, and uncertainty appear to have caused the brain to age quicker for those who lived through the crisis.

“What surprised me most was that even people who hadn’t had Covid showed significant increases in brain aging rates,” said Ali-Reza Mohammadi-Nejad, a coauthor of the study, in a statement on the university’s website. “The longitudinal MRI data acquired before and after the pandemic from the UK Biobank gave us a rare window to observe how such a major life event can affect the brain,” said Stamatios Sotiropoulos, professor of computational neuroimaging at the University of Nottingham and a coauthor of the study, in a statement. The researchers also found that this acceleration of brain aging was more marked in older people, men, and those from disadvantaged socioeconomic backgrounds, such as those with low educational levels, precarious jobs, or housing and health difficulties.

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