A common worry among neurodivergent adults is whether ADHD or autism might mean the brain ages faster, raising the risk of cognitive decline later in life. A large 2026 neuroimaging study published in PLOS Medicine set out to test exactly that question across nine different brain-related conditions - and found no evidence of accelerated brain aging in either ADHD or autism.
How researchers measured "brain age"
Researchers led by a team at Nanjing University of Aeronautics and Astronautics analyzed structural MRI scans from 45,900 healthy adults and 2,698 patients with one of nine conditions, looking at 1,016 distinct brain regions. They trained a machine learning model on the healthy cohort to predict a person's age from their brain scan alone, then applied that model to the patient groups. The gap between a person's predicted brain age and their actual chronological age is called the Predicted Age Difference (PAD) - a positive PAD means the brain looks older than it should for that person's age, which researchers use as a marker of accelerated brain aging.
What showed accelerated aging - and what did not
The results revealed a clear hierarchy. Alzheimer's disease showed by far the largest effect, followed by tobacco addiction, alcohol addiction, schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, mild cognitive impairment, and major depressive disorder - all showing statistically significant accelerated brain aging. ADHD and autism stood apart from this pattern: both showed virtually no deviation from typical aging trajectories.
Why this matters (and what it does not mean)
This does not mean ADHD and autistic brains are identical to neurotypical brains - decades of neuroimaging research document real structural and connectivity differences in both conditions. What this study suggests is that those differences are not the same thing as premature aging. The brain changes associated with ADHD and autism appear to be a different kind of difference than the wear-and-tear pattern seen in neurodegenerative disease, addiction, or some other psychiatric conditions. That distinction matters, because conflating "different" with "aging faster" can fuel unnecessary worry about future cognitive decline that this data does not support.
Limitations to keep in mind
The study used cross-sectional data - a single scan per person, compared across large groups - rather than tracking the same individuals over years. That means it cannot show how brain aging unfolds over an individual's lifetime, only how group averages compare at one point in time. Longitudinal studies, following the same people over decades, would be needed to confirm whether this pattern holds as people age.
The takeaway
If you are ADHD or autistic and have worried about long-term brain health, this research offers real reassurance, while the broader picture of how these conditions show up in the brain is still being mapped. For more on the biology behind these conditions, see our articles on autism genes and brain pathways and AuDHD, or take our free ADHD screening and Autism AQ-10 tests.
Sources: Study on brain age prediction across nine conditions, PLOS Medicine (2026), led by researchers at Nanjing University of Aeronautics and Astronautics; reporting via Technology Networks. Educational summary - not a diagnosis or medical advice.