The COVID pandemic may have aged your brain. Here's what the science says
In a study published in Nature Communications on Tuesday, researchers from the University of Nottingham in Britain analyzed brain scans from nearly 1,000 adults taken both before and after the pandemic began.
The team investigated whether the global crisis had affected brain health.
They used artificial intelligence trained on pre-pandemic data from more than 15,000 healthy participants in the U.K. Biobank to model normal brain aging. When applied to the new scans, the algorithm revealed a clear pattern: People who lived through the pandemic — regardless of infection status — showed signs of accelerated structural brain aging.
'What surprised me most was that even people who hadn't had COVID showed significant increases in brain aging rates,' said lead author Dr. Ali-Reza Mohammadi-Nejad, a researcher at the University of Nottingham, in a paper accompanying the study. 'It really shows how much the experience of the pandemic itself, everything from isolation to uncertainty, may have affected our brain health.'
The effects were most pronounced in men, older adults and individuals from socioeconomically disadvantaged backgrounds.
While only those who had been infected with COVID-19 showed measurable declines in cognitive performance — such as slower thinking and reduced mental flexibility—structural brain changes were observed across the broader population.
'This study reminds us that brain health is shaped not only by illness, but by our everyday environment,' said Dorothee Auer, senior author of the study.
The long-term impact of these changes remains unknown, but the researchers say the findings highlight the need to consider the mental and neurological effects of large-scale social disruption.
'Brain health can be influenced by everyday life activities, and major societal disruptions — like those experienced during the pandemic — can leave a mark even in healthy individuals,' Mohammadi-Nejad said. 'This adds to our understanding of public health by reinforcing the importance of considering mental, cognitive and social well-being alongside traditional physical health indicators during future crisis-response planning.'
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All I remember is lying in this hotel bed, sweating and feeling like I was suffocating, and the doc telling me over the phone that if you take too much codeine, your brain stops telling your lungs to work. I was very lucky to survive. Although, the way I was feeling, I would have been happy never to wake up again. He also described being diagnosed in 2003 with "Parkinson-ian syndrome": Finally, me and Sharon went back to [Dr. Ropper's] office to find out what the f*** was wrong with me, once and for all. "I think I've got to the bottom of this," he said. "Basically, Mr Osbourne, you have a very, very rare condition, which is caused by your mother and your father both having the same damaged chromosome in their DNA. And when I say it's very rare, think one-in-a-billion rare. The good news is that it's not MS or Parkinson's disease. The bad news is that we don't really have a name for it. The best description is probably Parkinson -ian syndrome." "Is that what's been giving me the tremor?" "Absolutely." "And it's hereditary? It has nothing to do with the booze or the drugs?" "The alcohol and some of the drugs you were taking were definitely making it worse. But they weren't the primary cause." "Can you treat it?" "Yes. But first I have to tell you something, Mr Osbourne. If you keep drinking, and if you keep abusing drugs, you'll have to find another doctor, because I won't have you as a patient. I'm a busy man, I have a very long waiting list and I can't afford to have my time wasted." I'd never been spoken to like that by a doctor before. And the way he looked at me, I knew he was serious. "OK, doc," I said. "I'll try my hardest." Because of all his health issues, Osbourne described being "relieved" that he got the COVID-19 vaccine in February 2021. In an interview he gave before getting the shot, he said he wanted the two-dose vaccine: "I want to get the shot. … I look at it like this — if I don't get the shot and I get the virus, there's a good chance I ain't going to be here." Osbourne performed his final live show a few weeks before his death. His wife, Sharon Osbourne, told the media that this performance was his goodbye to his fans. The claim about his health and the COVID-19 vaccine is consistent with a common conspiracy theory that spread online during the pandemic, falsely attributing numerous famous peoples' deaths to the vaccine. We have previously fact-checked such claims about Betty White, Lisa Loring and even Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny. We also reported in 2021 that there was very little evidence tying blood clot cases to the AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine. An investigation by the European Medicine Agency found that the vaccine was "safe and effective." While the EMA said that it would add a warning label to the vaccine to alert doctors and patients to the extremely rare possibility of blood clots, the agency said that "benefits of the vaccine clearly outweigh the risks." Emery, David. "Did Betty White Say She Got COVID Booster 3 Days Before She Died?" Snopes, 2 Jan. 2022, Accessed July 25, 2025. Evon, Dan. "Does AstraZeneca COVID-19 Vaccine Cause Blood Clots?" Snopes, 16 Mar. 2021, Accessed July 25, 2025. Grow, Kory. "Ozzy Osbourne on His Road Back From Hell: 'I Was Absolutely in Agony.'" Rolling Stone, 20 Aug. 2019, Accessed July 25, 2025. Liles, Jordan. "No Evidence Lisa Loring's Cause of Death Was COVID-19 Vaccine." Snopes, 31 Jan. 2023, Accessed July 25, 2025. Osbourne, Ozzy. I Am Ozzy. Grand Central Publishing, 2010. Accessed July 25, 2025. "Ozzy Osbourne Dies at 76: What He Shared About His Health Over the Years." 23 July 2025, Accessed July 25, 2025. Peters, Mitchell. "Ozzy Osbourne Says He's Feeling 'Relieved' After Getting His First COVID-19 Shot: Watch." Billboard, 15 Feb. 2021, Accessed July 25, 2025. Petridis, Alexis. "'I Don't Want to Die in a Hotel Room Somewhere': Black Sabbath on Reconciling for Their Final Gig – and How Ozzy Is Living through Hell." The Guardian, 2 May 2025. The Guardian, Accessed July 25, 2025. "Rocker Ozzy Osbourne Announces Parkinson's Diagnosis." AP News, 21 Jan. 2020, Accessed July 25, 2025. Wrona, Aleksandra. "Did Alexei Navalny Die from COVID-19 Vaccine?" Snopes, 21 Feb. 2024, Accessed July 25, 2025.
