As a result of the corona virus epidemic, the mental age of young people has increased faster than usual.
This discovery was revealed in a medical study in America.
The study from Stanford University compared the brain scans of 163 young people before and one year after the coronavirus outbreak.
As a person moves from boyhood to puberty, certain areas of the brain gradually grow larger.
But in children who have been abused, abused or neglected, this process is accelerated by severe stress.
The researchers said that thanks to our global research, we already knew that the corona epidemic had negative effects on the mental health of young people around the world, but we were not aware of what effects it had on the brain.
During adolescence, the development of the hippocampus and amygdala accelerates.
These are the parts that control access to specific memories, as well as affect emotional changes.
At the same time, the tissue of the cortex, which supports important brain functions, becomes thinner.
These changes were discovered prematurely in the youth during the study.
The researchers said that these changes in brain aging have been previously observed in children who experienced adverse childhood conditions.
The research began before the coronavirus pandemic and was primarily aimed at examining depression during puberty in children and adolescents.
But the situation changed due to the corona virus epidemic and the experts had to stop the work for a year after which they changed the goals.
The researchers found that the brain age of these young people increased much faster a year after the corona epidemic than before.
He said that the epidemic was global and if everyone was affected by it, the results of the research indicate that it may affect the entire generation of young people in later life.
It is not yet known whether the changes due to the corona virus epidemic will be reversible or not.
The researchers said that the brain undergoes rapid changes during adolescence and therefore increases the risk of mental illnesses, including depression.
He further said that now as a result of the global epidemic, everyone’s daily routine has been affected to some extent, so the brains of the youth of the present era cannot be compared with the youth of a few years ago.
The results of this research were published in the journal Biological Psychiatry.