Accelerated brain ageing during the COVID-19 pandemic, 2025, Mohammadi-Nejad et al

[Wyva]

Ali-Reza Mohammadi-Nejad, Martin Craig, Eleanor F. Cox, Xin Chen, R. Gisli Jenkins, Susan Francis, Stamatios N. Sotiropoulos & Dorothee P. Auer

Abstract​

The impact of SARS-CoV-2 and the COVID-19 pandemic on brain health is recognised, yet specific effects remain understudied. We investigate the pandemic’s impact on brain ageing using longitudinal neuroimaging data from the UK Biobank. Brain age prediction models are trained from hundreds of multi-modal imaging features using a cohort of 15,334 healthy participants. These models are then applied to an independent cohort of 996 healthy participants with two magnetic resonance imaging scans: either both collected before the pandemic (Control groups), or one before and one after the pandemic onset (Pandemic group).

Our findings reveal that, even with initially matched brain age gaps (predicted brain age vs. chronological age) and matched for a range of health markers, the pandemic significantly accelerates brain ageing. The Pandemic group shows on average 5.5-month higher deviation of brain age gap at the second time point compared with controls. Accelerated brain ageing is more pronounced in males and those from deprived socio-demographic backgrounds and these deviations exist regardless of SARS-CoV-2 infection.

However, accelerated brain ageing correlates with reduced cognitive performance only in COVID-infected participants. Our study highlights the pandemic’s significant impact on brain health, beyond direct infection effects, emphasising the need to consider broader social and health inequalities.

Open access: https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-025-61033-4

 

[Utsikt]

So the living in a pandemic took a toll on people’s brains, and more so for the people that probably on average faced more everyday struggles and problems.

But the only exposure to the virus took a toll on the brains ability to function?

Spoiler: Figure 5

Fig. 5: Impact of COVID-19 on cognitive performance across rates of change in brain age gap.

The figure illustrates the percentage change in completion time for the Trail Making Test A (TMT-A, top row) and Trail Making Test B (TMT-B, bottom row) over two imaging time points across varying rates of change in brain age gap (BAG).

Results are shown for the Pandemic–COVID-19 (G3, N = 134; red), Pandemic–No COVID-19 (G4, N = 298; green), and No Pandemic (G2, N = 564; blue) groups, using both grey matter (GM, left panels) and white matter (WM, right panels) models.

A three-year sliding window was used to smooth the curves. Standard error is indicated using shaded areas: light blue (G2), light green (G4), and light red (G3). Boxplots (upper left of each row) display the raw distribution of percentage change in TMT performance, without a sliding window, for GM and WM models.

Participants with COVID-19 (G3) showed greater decline in performance (i.e., longer completion times) compared to the Control group (G2), with FDR-corrected p-values of 1.0e-6 (TMT-A) and 9.1e-5 (TMT-B). Significant differences were also observed between COVID-infected (G3) and non-infected (G4) Pandemic participants (FDR-corrected p-values: 7.2e-4 (TMT-A) and 7.4e-4 (TMT-B)).

Asterisks indicate statistical significance: *** denotes FDR-corrected p ≤ 0.001; **** denotes FDR-corrected p ≤ 0.0001. Group differences were assessed using two-sample t tests.

 

[Utsikt]

Well, their conclusion is a bit different:

In conclusion, the COVID-19 pandemic profoundly impacted brain health, shown as accelerated brain ageing, influenced by bio-psycho-social factors, especially social and health deprivation. Notably, the main effects were independent of infection status, except for interactions between COVID-19 infection, brain ageing, old age, and cognitive decline. Our findings highlight the need to address health and socio-economic inequalities in addition to lifestyle factors to mitigate accelerated brain ageing. Continued research and targeted policies are crucial to improve brain health outcomes in future public health crises.

This is inconsistent with their discussion:

Cognitive performance, particularly in flexibility and processing speed tasks, declined significantly in COVID-19 infected individuals, correlating with accelerated GM ageing. Conversely, participants who experienced the pandemic without reported infection had similar age-related declines as controls, demonstrating that pandemic-related accelerated brain ageing alone was insufficient to lead to cognitive decline.

It seems to me like they consider «cognitive decline» to be less important than «the main effect»: «brain ageing».

Wouldn’t brain ageing and cognitive decline be worse?

 

[shak8]

I would bet that similar findings would be generated in the US population in a few years time (we hope only a few more years...)

Accelerated aging due to extreme chronic stress.