The brain’s of over-50s deteriorated rapidly during lockdown, according to a study.
Researchers examined computerised brain function tests from people aged between 50 and 90 who were based in the UK, which tested participants’ short-term memory and ability to complete complex tasks.
They analysed data from more than 3,000 people and established a link between lockdown and sustained cognitive decline.
Cognitive decline quickened significantly in the first year of lockown, when they found a 50 percent change to the rate of decline across the study group.
This figure was higher in those who already had mild cognitive decline before the pandemic restrictions.
Considerable Detriment
Researchers said that the societal restrictions during the COVID-19 pandemic hold the potential for considerable detriment to cognitive and mental health, particularly because major dementia risk factors—such as those related to exercise and dietary habits—were affected during this period.The cognitive decline was exacerbated by a number of factors during the lockdowns, including an increase in loneliness and depression, a decrease in exercise and higher alcohol consumption.
Previous research has found that physical activity, treating existing depression, getting back into the community and reconnecting with people reduce dementia risk and maintain brain health.
Professor Anne Corbett, from the University of Exeter, said: “Our findings suggest that lockdowns and other restrictions we experienced during the pandemic have had a real lasting impact on brain health in people aged 50 or over, even after the lockdowns ended.
“This raises the important question of whether people are at a potentially higher risk of cognitive decline which can lead to dementia,” she said.
“It is now more important than ever to make sure we are supporting people with early cognitive decline, especially because there are things they can do to reduce their risk of dementia later on,” she added.
She said that the findings highlight “the need for policy-makers to consider the wider health impacts of restrictions like lockdowns when planning for a future pandemic response.”
Sian Gregory, from the Alzheimer’s Society, said: “We know that up to 40 percent of dementia cases could potentially be prevented.
Altered Adolescents’ Brains
In 2022, a study from Stanford University found that the stress of pandemic lockdowns prematurely aged the brains of teenagers.It said that “pandemic-related stressors” have physically altered adolescents’ brains, making their brain structures appear several years older than the brains of comparable peers before the pandemic
Compared to adolescents assessed before the pandemic, adolescents assessed after the pandemic shutdowns not only had more severe internalising mental health problems, but also had reduced cortical thickness, larger hippocampal and amygdala volume, and more advanced brain age.”
At the time, paper author, Ian Gotlib, the Marjorie Mhoon Fair professor of psychology in the school of humanities & sciences, said that it is “not clear if the changes are permanent,” said Gotlib.
“Will their chronological age eventually catch up to their ‘brain age?' If their brain remains permanently older than their chronological age, it’s unclear what the outcomes will be in the future. For a 70- or 80-year-old, you’d expect some cognitive and memory problems based on changes in the brain, but what does it mean for a 16-year-old if their brains are aging prematurely?”
