A new study found that the COVID-19 pandemic may be linked to more rapid brain aging. Researchers examined the effects of the pandemic — not the disease itself — on brain aging by comparing the "brain age gap" on MRIs taken before and after the pandemic's onset.

The brains of healthy people aged faster during the COVID-19 pandemic than did the brains of people analysed before the pandemic began, a study of almost 1,000 people suggests. The accelerated ageing occurred even in people who didn’t become infected.

People who got infected with the virus also showed deficits in certain cognitive abilities, such as processing speed and mental flexibility.