r/science • u/mvea Professor | Medicine • Sep 09 '24

Neuroscience Covid lockdowns prematurely aged girls’ brains more than boys’, study finds. MRI scans found girls’ brains appeared 4.2 years older than expected after lockdowns, compared with 1.4 years for boys.

https://www.theguardian.com/science/article/2024/sep/09/covid-lockdowns-prematurely-aged-girls-brains-more-than-boys-study-finds
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u/ttkciar Sep 09 '24 edited Sep 10 '24

It's worth pointing out that nowhere in this study do they mention filtering out or adjusting for incidences of SARS-CoV-2 infection in their subjects, and that other studies have demonstrated that cortical density loss is observed (also via MRI) after SARS-CoV-2 infection:

https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-024-52005-7

https://www.thelancet.com/journals/lanwpc/article/PIIS2666-6065(24)00080-4/fulltext

Given this, it seems odd to me that the researchers would jump to the conclusion that lockdown lifestyle changes (which were not even observed by many Americans) were the cause of this cortical thinning, and not SARS-CoV-2 infection.

Edited: I accidentally pasted the wrong link for the second study; sorry. The Lancet study was what I meant to link. Fixed it.

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u/mizushimo Sep 09 '24

Why would there be a gender difference if it was caused by a covid infection?

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u/The69BodyProblem Sep 09 '24

Just a theory, but men have weaker immune systems, and tend to die more from COVID, whereas women have stronger immune responses which is part of the reason why autoimmune diseases tend to affect women at higher rates. It could be that the higher immune response kept more women alive, but also harmed their brains due to a more extreme response.

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u/ttkciar Sep 09 '24

That would fit nicely with this paper which purports that the cortical damage from SARS-CoV-2 infection is caused by the inflammation of the immune response:

https://www.nature.com/articles/s41593-024-01573-y