The research from the University of Washington is clear: lockdowns, interrupted extracurricular activities, and school closures have prematurely aged teenagers’ brains. Girls were significantly more affected than boys.

The study, published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, definitively demonstrated that the brain structure of 160 teenagers changed over time using magnetic resonance imaging. The participants were between the ages of nine and 19 when the study began. In 2020, the study was paused due to societal lockdowns and restrictions. The researchers shifted the focus of the study to investigate how the lockdowns affected the teenagers’ brains. In 2021, the study resumed.

By measuring the thickness of the cerebral cortex, the outer layer of tissue in the brain that controls higher functions such as reasoning and decision-making, the researchers definitively found that the brains of teenage boys aged 1.4 years prematurely aged after the lockdowns. The girls’ brain scans definitively showed an accelerated aging of 4.2 years.

The cortex thins as we age. Chronic stress also causes similar changes in the brain. However, the thinning was much greater than expected between the first scan and the follow-up in 2018 and 2021. The scans definitively showed that the thinning was widespread throughout the female brain, occurring in 30 regions across both cerebral hemispheres and all lobes. In the male brain, the thinning was limited to only two regions, both in the occipital lobe. This affected distance and depth perception, face recognition, and memory.

– All of the teens in general showed this accelerated aging, researcher Patricia Kuhl told NBC News.

Social interaction more important for girls

Girls’ brains were generally more affected because social interaction is more important for girls than for boys, Kuhl says. Boys congregate around sports and physical activity. Teenage girls rely on personal relationships for emotional support and increased self-identity. Kuhl is adamant that the coronavirus crisis was particularly damaging for young people. They were already at a point in their lives when they were experiencing intense changes in their emotional and behavioral development, making isolation even more detrimental to their health.

– The pandemic was dramatic and unexpected, of course, but dramatic and catastrophic in a way, not only for physical health, but mental health, she says.

It is clear from previous research that children’s mental health was negatively affected by lockdowns and restrictions during the coronavirus crisis. One study showed that the mental health of Norwegian adolescents deteriorated during the Norwegian restrictions. Another study demonstrated that children who experienced lockdowns during the coronavirus crisis experienced more social, emotional and behavioural difficulties.