Functional brain connectivity prior to the COVID‐19 outbreak predicts mental health trajectories during two years of pandemic.

This article discusses a study that aimed to investigate the relationship between functional brain connectivity (FC) and long-term mental health outcomes during the COVID-19 pandemic. The study involved 702 healthy, middle-aged individuals who underwent resting-state functional magnetic resonance imaging before the pandemic. The results showed that FC measures of specific brain networks were associated with different trajectories of mental health components. The study suggests that assessing brain network integration versus segregation can help predict individual resilience and vulnerability across mental health dimensions, allowing for early identification of at-risk individuals and the development of personalized preventive strategies. [Extracted from the article]