Lockdowns changed girls’ brains, study says
The COVID-19 lockdowns affected the brains of teenage girls by aging them over four years, according to a study published Monday in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
In 2018, University of Washington researchers wanted to track the differences between male and female brain development during adolescence. They conducted MRI scans of 130 children between nine and 17 years old and planned to perform another scan in 2020. The pandemic frustrated those plans, however, and the researchers instead conducted the second MRI in 2021 just after the lockdowns ended.
They used a technique called normative modeling to compare the two scans against models showing the normal development of an adolescent brain. They found that the children’s cerebral cortices had prematurely thinned, a process called cortical thinning. The cerebral cortex thickens during childhood and begins to thin during adolescence, continuing to do so throughout the lifespan.
Previous studies have shown that premature cortical thinning, also known as accelerated brain maturation, can occur as a response to adversity. Accelerated cortical thinning has been associated with anxiety and depression.
Premature aging
The University of Washington researchers found that teenage girls’ brains had prematurely aged by 4.2 years, compared with 1.4 years for boys.
“That is a stunning difference,” said Patricia K. Kuhl, one of the study’s authors and director of the University of Washington’s Institute for Learning and Brain Sciences. “A girl who came in at 11, and then returned to the lab at age 14, now has a brain that looks like an 18-year-old’s.”
Furthermore, the study found that while boys experienced cortical thinning in two places in the brain — both located in the occipital lobe — girls had thinning in 30 places across all lobes and both hemispheres.
It remains unclear whether the maturation is reversible, though Dr. Kuhl suggests it may not be.
“Let’s say that girl who comes back at age 14,” she said. “Let’s say her whole life gets better as the pandemic recedes, her social life returns and she’s back with her friends. All the stress hasn’t been removed, but at least she’s got that release valve.”
The researchers blame the accelerated maturation on “social deprivation caused by the pandemic,” which affected girls more because they require more social interaction.
Others have challenged the study’s findings, however, saying the researchers lack evidence that the brain changes were caused by lockdowns.
The effects of lockdowns
Research has conclusively shown that lockdowns were not based on science. A study from Johns Hopkins University found that not only did lockdowns have “little to no public health effects, they have imposed enormous economic and social costs where they have been adopted.” The mental and emotional fallout from lockdowns — particularly on children — is still unfolding.
An Israeli study of 771,636 medical files found that lockdowns were associated with a 60% increase in patients suffering from psychiatric disorders compared with 2019. It also found a 14% increase in patients with cardiovascular diseases, an 8% increase in obese patients, a 7% increase in patients who smoke, and a 6% increase in patients with high blood pressure.
The study came after a report warning of a “psychiatric pandemic” due to the harsh psychiatric impact of lockdowns and quarantines, particularly on children and adolescents.
According to another study, students who suffered through the pandemic and were subjected to lockdowns should brace for significant losses in lifetime earnings.
