Confainment effects
Our brain took a stroke of old during the pandemic
According to a study, this aging is not due to the infection of the COVID-19 itself, but would be rather explained by social factors.
A study on nearly 1000 people showed that aging of the brain during the pandemic was not linked to infectious status.
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What if the pandemic had agreed our brain faster, even for those that the virus spared? This is shown by a study published Tuesday in «Nature communications». She reveals that it is not the infection at the COVVI 19 who changed our brainbut rather everything that surrounded the crisis, stress, isolation and the countless upheavals of our daily life.
An accelerated brain aging of 5.5 months
This study, conducted by British researchers, is based on data from theUK Biobank, A vast base of medical information. Scientists have analyzed cerebral MRIs from nearly 1000 people who each spent two brain scanners several years apart: before the pandemic and after.
Then, from 15,000 brain images, scientists led to an artificial intelligence program to analyze the age of the brain according to the clichés obtained. Thanks to AI, it was possible to estimate the cerebral age of each participant and compare it to their real age. The goal of the approach: to determine if the brain was growing faster than normal.
And result: people who lived the pandemic period had accelerated brain aging of around 5.5 months … even without having contracted the virus. This structural transformation of the brain is therefore explained, according to the authors, by the social environment specific to the pandemic.
More vulnerable profiles than others
Even in health, inequalities persist. Indeed, stress linked to the pandemic has not touched everyone in the same way: they are the most vulnerable people, like those in a precarious, old or isolated situation, whose brain seems to have been the most affected by this rapid aging.
Finally, if it is true that the brain has grown up (more) quickly than expected, it did not necessarily affect our mental capacities, the scientists are said. On this point, the infection is responsible for any damage, because only the people who contracted the COVVI-19 (between the two brain examinations) presented a slight declineespecially in terms of speed of reflection and their mental flexibility. For the others, the brain has certainly taken a few wrinkles, but a priori without visible consequences on a daily basis.
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