Accelerated maturation of brain circuits and executive function in adolescents who experienced the COVID-19 pandemic

The COVID-19 pandemic disrupted many aspects of daily life. Previous studies have suggested that these disruptions altered the trajectory of typical adolescent gray matter development. This study examined whether development of white matter and of executive function (EF), measured behaviorally, were similarly affected. Diffusion-weighted MRI (dMRI) and EF measurements were collected at two timepoints: pre-pandemic and post-lockdown. Mean diffusivity and fractional anisotropy were calculated from the dMRI data. Normative models calculated from a pre-pandemic adolescent sample were used to assess deviations from typical development in a separate post-lockdown sample from the same participant cohort. Several white matter pathways showed accelerated development post-lockdown, and the acceleration was greater in females than in males. Post-lockdown performance on EF tasks also showed accelerated development. These findings suggest that the COVID-19 pandemic was associated with both accelerated white matter maturation and accelerated EF performance.