Commentary
According to Mohammadi-Nejad, the study wasn’t designed to discover specific causes of pandemic-related brain aging, but environmental factors and the overall pandemic experience likely contributed to the changes.
“[I]t is likely that the cumulative experience of the pandemic—including psychological stress, social isolation, disruptions in daily life, reduced activity and wellness—contributed to the observed changes,” Mohammadi-Nejad said. “In this sense, the pandemic period itself appears to have left a mark on our brains, even in the absence of infection.”
Separately, Jacqueline Becker, a clinical neuropsychologist and assistant professor of medicine at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, said that “[t]he most intriguing finding in this study is that only those who were infected with SARS-CoV-2 showed any cognitive deficits, despite structural aging.”
“This speaks a little to the effects of the virus,” Becker said, adding that these findings may eventually help explain different conditions associated with COVID-19 like long COVID and chronic fatigue.
Adam Brickman, a professor of neuropsychology at Columbia University Vagelos College of Physicians and Surgeons, said that while the study’s findings are compelling, they are “still a hypothesis.” So far, it’s not clear whether accelerated brain aging in people who didn’t get COVID-19 will persist over time.
However, if the pandemic did change people’s brains in meaningful ways, there could be ways to counter these changes. “We know that exercise is good for the brain and keeping blood pressure at a healthy level, for example,” Brickman said. “We know that sleep and social interactions are important.”