A new study from the University of Nottingham has found that simply living through the Covid-19 pandemic may have aged people’s brains—even if they never caught the virus.
The study, published in Nature Communications, suggests that the stress, isolation, and disruption caused by the pandemic had a noticeable impact on brain health.
Researchers wanted to understand what it means to grow older not just by age, but in terms of how the brain changes.
They looked at brain scans from almost 1,000 healthy adults who took part in the UK Biobank project. Some had scans taken before and after the pandemic, while others were scanned only before the pandemic began.
Using advanced brain imaging and machine learning tools, the scientists estimated each person’s “brain age”—a measure of how old the brain looks compared to their actual age.
They found that people who lived through the pandemic showed signs of faster brain aging than those whose scans were done entirely before it started.
The changes were most noticeable in older people, men, and those from more disadvantaged backgrounds. The researchers say that although these changes might not cause immediate symptoms, they could have long-term effects on brain health if not addressed.
Interestingly, only those who had Covid-19 between their scans showed a drop in thinking abilities like processing speed and mental flexibility. This means that the pandemic experience alone may have aged the brain, but infection itself caused more obvious issues with cognitive function.
Dr. Ali-Reza Mohammadi-Nejad, who led the study, said, “What surprised me most was that even people who hadn’t had Covid showed significant increases in brain aging rates. It really shows how much the experience of the pandemic itself, everything from isolation to uncertainty, may have affected our brain health.”
To develop a reliable model for estimating brain age, the researchers first trained their system using scans from more than 15,000 healthy people without other medical conditions. This allowed them to detect small but important changes in brain structure across different groups.
Professor Dorothee Auer, a senior author on the study, explained, “This study reminds us that brain health is shaped not only by illness, but by our everyday environment. The pandemic put a strain on people’s lives, especially those already facing disadvantage. We can’t yet test whether the changes we saw will reverse, but it’s certainly possible, and that’s an encouraging thought.”
Professor Stamatios Sotiropoulos, another lead researcher, added, “The MRI data we had from before and after the pandemic gave us a rare chance to see how major life events can affect the brain over time.”
The good news is that the brain aging effect seen in the study might not be permanent. Researchers believe that brain health could improve again with the right support, especially if people focus on managing stress, staying socially connected, and maintaining healthy lifestyles. This study gives hope that even after a global crisis, the brain has the ability to recover.
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The study is published in Nature Communications.
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