Recent scientific research, published in Nature Communications, has revealed a previously unnoticed, harmful effect of the COVID-19 pandemic on the brain. A team of scientists from the University of Nottingham found that the pandemic significantly accelerated the brain’s aging process. This result points to the widespread and alarming neurological consequences of a global stressor.
Brain age is an important biomarker reflecting the brain’s health and cognitive abilities. Accelerated brain aging means that its structural and functional changes occur faster than chronological age, increasing the future risk of cognitive decline and neurodegenerative diseases.
Study Details: UK Biobank Data and Neuroimaging
British scientists, including Ali-Reza Mohammadi-Nejad, Stamatios Sotiropoulos, and Dorothea Auer, analyzed extensive data from the UK Biobank. The study authors examined neuroimaging data from 15,334 healthy individuals and developed models that predict brain age. These models, based on brain structure, assess how “aged” a brain is.
The developed models were then applied to an independent group of 996 healthy participants who had undergone two magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) brain scans. Some participants (the control group) were scanned twice by MRI before the pandemic, while the other group (the pandemic group) was scanned once before the pandemic and again after its onset. The first MRI scan allowed scientists to determine the initial brain age, and the second showed how the pandemic affected its condition.
The study results revealed that brain aging significantly accelerated in the pandemic group. At the initial MRI examination, the brain age of participants in both groups (pandemic and control) corresponded to their real, or chronological, age. However, the second, follow-up scan showed that the pandemic group’s brains were, on average, 5.5 months older than the control group’s brains, whose data was collected during the same period. This indicates that their brains aged approximately half a year faster during the pandemic. The difference persisted even when other health-related factors were considered, further strengthening the reliability of the study’s results.
Scientists examined brain data from both individuals who had COVID-19 and those who were not infected with the virus. The results determined that accelerated brain aging was characteristic of both groups, indicating that the pandemic affected brain health not only through infection but also through general social, psychological, and lifestyle changes. The study did not directly investigate what caused the accelerated brain aging; however, according to the scientists, chronic stress, anxiety, depression, and social isolation caused by the pandemic may have negatively impacted brain structure and function.
This discovery is extremely important from a public health perspective. It shows that brain health is influenced not only by the virus but also by the social and psychological changes brought about by the pandemic. Accelerated aging potentially increases the risk of developing neurodegenerative diseases (such as Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s). A in-depth study of the results is necessary to determine how these processes can be managed and to what extent.
Sources:
Mohammadi-Nejad, A. R., Craig, M., Cox, E. F., Chen, X., Jenkins, R. G., Francis, S., … & Auer, D. P. (2025). Accelerated brain ageing during the COVID-19 pandemic. Nature Communications, 16(1), 6411.
Medscape. (2025, July 24). COVID-19 Pandemic Tied to Accelerated Brain Aging.
