Teenage brains are noticeably different because of COVID-induced stress, study finds
For teenagers, the stress caused by the COVID-19 pandemic — resulting in sudden shutdowns of schools and interruptions to their social lives — has had a noticeable, physical impact on their growing brains, according to new research.
Teenage brains have aged rapidly as a result of COVID-19 associated stress, a Stanford University study published Dec.1 in the journal Biological Psychiatry: Global Open Science has found.
“This is the first demonstration that difficulties in mental health (for adolescents) during the pandemic are accompanied by what seem to be stress-related changes in brain structure,” lead study author Ian Gotlib, a psychology professor who directs the Stanford Neurodevelopment, Affect, and Psychopathology (SNAP) Laboratory at the university, told McClatchy News in a statement.
Of the young teens studied, their brains appeared “several years older” after the pandemic compared to teenage brains before, according to a Stanford news release. Such rapid brain changes have only been observed in youth who have gone through adverse life experiences, including “neglect and family dysfunction.”
Researchers analyzed MRI brain scans of 81 teenagers, about 16 years old, before the pandemic and MRI brain scans of 82 teenagers after they went through the COVID-19 shutdowns, according to the study.
The physical features of the brains of the teens after the shutdowns were similar to older individuals and children who have experienced “significant adversity,” study authors wrote. Changes included advanced cortical thinning, and “larger bilateral hippocampal and amygdala volumes.”
While cortical thinning is normal for aging individuals, accelerated thinning may be indicative of certain diseases including Alzheimer’s, according to a study published in the National Library of Medicine in 2016 .
Authors of the Stanford study wrote that “as a result of social isolation and distancing during the (pandemic) shutdown, virtually all youth experienced adversity in the form of significant departures from their normal routines.”
“Financial strain, threats to physical health, and exposure to increased familial violence were alarmingly common during the pandemic,” authors added.
Impact of premature aging on teenage brains is unclear
The premature aging of teenage brains is at least a short-term change, according to the study.
Gotlib said in the news release that it is “not clear if the changes are permanent.”
“Will their chronological age eventually catch up to their ‘brain age’? If their brain remains permanently older than their chronological age, it’s unclear what the outcomes will be in the future,” Gotlib said. “For a 70- or 80-year-old, you’d expect some cognitive and memory problems based on changes in the brain, but what does it mean for a 16-year-old if their brains are aging prematurely?”
Study authors acknowledged that the teenagers studied were of a high socioeconomic status and are from the San Francisco Bay Area.
They are calling on researchers to examine the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on adolescent brains by studying a more diverse sample that represents a bigger population.
“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,” Gotlib said.
This story was originally published December 1, 2022 at 2:15 PM with the headline "Teenage brains are noticeably different because of COVID-induced stress, study finds."
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