Claim: Teen Girl's Brains Aged Rapidly During the Pandemic

Question

I saw a Instagram post promoting an article that claimed teenage girl's brains aged quicker than boys did during the Covid pandemic. Neuroimaging showed a drastic difference between female and male adolescents.

Comments

For one, the notion of "aging" in this context can be quite complex. What specific metrics were used to determine this accelerated aging? It would be beneficial to look into whether the researchers controlled for various factors, such as stress levels, socio-economic conditions, and the differing ways boys and girls coped with the pandemic.

Moreover, how representative was the sample used in the study? If the sample size was small or not diverse, it could skew the results and lead to overgeneralizations.

Answer 1

This article from the New York Times cited a research article published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences titled COVID-19 Lockdown Effects on Adolescent Brain Structure Suggest Accelerated Maturation that is More Pronounced in Females than in Males. In the abstract of the PNAS article, it states "The analysis revealed accelerated cortical thinning in the post-COVID brain, which was more widespread throughout the brain and greater in magnitude in females than in males. When measured in terms of equivalent years of development, the mean acceleration was found to be 4.2 y in females and 1.4 y in males. Accelerated brain maturation as a result of chronic stress or adversity during development has been well documented. These findings suggest that the lifestyle disruptions associated with the COVID-19 pandemic lockdowns caused changes in brain biology and had a more severe impact on the female than the male brain." 

Comments

Though this may be true, what part of brain biology determines "aging" in a person. Could these brain changes correlate to something else?

Answer 2

The New York Times states that teenage girls brains aged rapidly during the pandemic. The statement in the title matches what the news content page discusses. The article shows brain scans with evidence of a difference in teenage girls brains when covid was taking place. Increases of stress and disruptions of lifestyle are likely the reason for this, states Ellen Berry. Ellen Berry is an author for the New York Times and has wrote several articles for them. The NBC News also wrote a similar article on teenage girls brains aging with similar evidence. Therefore, the information from both articles aligns and it doesn't seem to be a biased statement.