JUANA SUMMERS, HOST:
The pandemic was traumatic for everyone, including teenagers. Now, new research provides the latest evidence that the stress and isolation of the pandemic appears to have affected the brain development of adolescents. NPR health correspondent Rob Stein has more.
ROB STEIN, BYLINE: Lots of research has found that the lockdowns, school closures and other measures taken to protect kids from COVID-19 took a toll on their mental health. So researchers at the University of Washington wondered, could you see this in their brains? So they analyzed brain scans conducted on 165 teenagers before and after the lockdowns.
PATRICIA KUHL: And, whoa, what we saw was a huge surprise.
STEIN: Patricia Kuhl led the study published today in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
KUHL: We showed that the pandemic lockdown produced a abnormal, a more rapid, accelerated thinning - meaning aging - in the teen brain.
STEIN: A part of the brain known as the cerebral cortex thinned much faster than normal during the pandemic. Now, the cerebral cortex naturally thins as people mature, so it may sound good, like teens just matured more quickly. But Kuhl says premature thinning of the cerebral cortex is not good news for teens.
KUHL: Increased thinning of the cortical gray matter is associated with slower processing speed, less mental flexibility, memory loss, so it is not considered a plus.
STEIN: In teens, it may impair the development of crucial mental and emotional skills, like what's known as executive functioning. But that's not all. Kuhl and her colleagues found a big difference between boys and girls. Girls' cerebral cortexes thinned the equivalent of more than four years versus one year for boys.
KUHL: This was big. This is a huge difference.
STEIN: Much more research is needed to understand the implications of these findings, but Kuhl says this might help explain why girls have been suffering more problems like anxiety and depression than boys since the pandemic. Rob Stein, NPR News. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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