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/sculpted_reach Sep 09 '24

Sex was the only variable they distinguished upon? Their hypothesis was that lack of social interaction caused that, but no variable for measuring of they had varying levels of social interaction were done.

I would want to know if some video face time usage made a difference or household size... or if their families even followed lockdown guidelines...

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u/RedMoloneySF Sep 10 '24

Redditors any time anyone smarter than them does anything:

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u/sculpted_reach Sep 10 '24

If you re-read my comment, you'll notice that I didn't insult the authors or paper. I've published and done official scientific reviews. That's just how we approach papers. The MRI work was impressive, but I would still have those same questions. With a longitudinal study (participants came back), they could have asked those questions.

They even tested a second model, but not those variables.

(I'm still new to reddit, as you can see, so I can't comment on normal redditor behavior.)