COVID-19 Pandemic Aged Brains By 5.5 Months — Even If You Were Never Infected, Study Shows

Whether you were infected with the virus or not, stress from the COVID-19 pandemic still led to brains aging faster. (© quickshooting – stock.adobe.com)

NOTTINGHAM, England — Brain scans from nearly 1,000 British adults reveal the pandemic accelerated aging in the brain by an average of 5.5 months, regardless of whether people contracted COVID-19. Males and people from disadvantaged backgrounds showed the most dramatic changes.

New research published in Nature Communications shows that the broader pandemic experience — lockdowns, social isolation, economic stress, and health anxiety — left measurable marks on brain structure that mirror the effects of aging. Scientists from the University of Nottingham analyzed brain scans from 996 healthy participants in the UK Biobank study, comparing those scanned before and during the pandemic to a control group scanned twice before the pandemic began.

Using artificial intelligence to predict brain age based on hundreds of imaging features, they found that pandemic-exposed brains looked significantly older than expected. People who never tested positive for COVID-19 showed similar brain aging patterns to those who did contract the virus.

How Scientists Measured Brain Aging During the Pandemic

Brain age prediction works by training computer algorithms to recognize patterns in brain scans that typically correspond to different ages. When someone’s brain appears older than their chronological age, it often signals health problems or increased vulnerability to cognitive decline and dementia.

Participants in the pandemic group showed an average brain age gap increase of 5.5 months compared to controls. Normal aging typically produces about 3 days of brain age advancement per year of chronological age in healthy adults, according to the study’s control group. But for those who lived through the pandemic, brain aging accelerated to around 7 to 8 days per year, more than double the usual rate.

Chronic stress triggers inflammation and other biological changes that accelerate normal aging processes in brain tissue. The pandemic created multiple stressors: social isolation, financial uncertainty, fear of illness, disrupted routines, and reduced access to healthcare.

Men and Disadvantaged Communities Hit Hardest

Research uncovered significant disparities in who suffered the most brain aging during the pandemic. Men showed greater acceleration than women, particularly in gray matter, the brain tissue containing most nerve cell bodies. The authors note that their findings align with earlier research suggesting men may be more susceptible to stress-related brain aging and neuroinflammation.

People from economically disadvantaged areas experienced substantially more brain aging. Those with low employment scores showed an average increase of 5.8 months in brain aging compared to those with high employment scores. Similar patterns emerged for health, education, and income indicators.

Health crises can worsen existing inequalities, as vulnerable populations often lack resources to cope with additional stressors. According to the study, people with various deprivation indicators showed substantially different brain aging during the pandemic compared to those from more advantaged backgrounds.

COVID Infection Added Cognitive Problems

While pandemic exposure alone accelerated brain aging, only people who actually contracted COVID-19 showed measurable cognitive decline. COVID patients performed significantly worse on trail-making tests, which measure mental flexibility and processing speed—cognitive abilities crucial for daily functioning.

Trail-making tests require people to quickly connect numbered or lettered dots in sequence. These tasks become harder when brain networks responsible for executive function are compromised. The cognitive effects appeared even in people with mild COVID cases, with fewer than 4% of study participants requiring hospitalization.

For COVID patients, direct viral effects add complexity beyond pandemic stress. SARS-CoV-2 can invade the nervous system and persist in the body for months after initial infection. The virus causes inflammation, damages blood vessels, and disrupts normal brain function through multiple pathways.

What This Means for Future Brain Health

Brain age acceleration may not be permanent, but the research team couldn’t assess whether these changes reverse over time since they only had two scan time points per participant. Future studies will need to track participants longer to understand the lasting impact of pandemic-related brain aging.

If a relatively brief period of societal stress can measurably age brains, the implications for future cognitive health and dementia risk across entire populations become concerning. The study also shows the importance of addressing social determinants of health during crises.

The fact that disadvantaged populations showed the most brain aging means that targeted support for vulnerable communities during health emergencies becomes a neurological necessity. These effects likely extend beyond COVID-19 to any major societal disruption that creates widespread stress, isolation, and uncertainty.

Disclaimer: This article is based on peer-reviewed research. While the findings are robust, the authors note that the long-term reversibility of brain aging changes remains unknown, and the research focused on a relatively healthy, middle-aged to older adult population. Results may not generalize to all demographics. Further follow-up studies are needed.