Increased brain-age gap in young adults with psychotic experiences

Navarro-González, Rafael, Luque-Laguna, Pedro, de Luis-García, Rodrigo, Jones, Derek ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-4409-8049, Merritt, Kate and David, Anthony S. 2025. Increased brain-age gap in young adults with psychotic experiences. Biological Psychiatry: Global Open Science Item availability restricted.

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Abstract

Background: Psychotic experiences (PEs) are linked to structural brain variation, but their relation to magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) derived brain-age is unclear. We hypothesized that young adults reporting PEs would show an increased brain-age gap (predicted – chronological age) and that this gap would diverge over ten years. Methods: A multilayer perceptron (2,628 training scans; age 6–50 years; mean absolute error = 4.3 years, R² = 0.72) estimated brain-age from T1-weighted MRIs in the Avon Longitudinal Study of Parents and Children. Participants were scanned at age around 20 years (n = 245; 124 PEs+) and again at around 30 years (n = 279; 69 PEs+); 113 contributed both scans. Linear mixed-effects models tested case–control, severity and time-by-group effects. Results: At the initial timepoint, individuals with PEs showed a larger brain-age gap than controls (d [95% CI] = 0.70 [0.14, 1.27]; q = .029). The brain-age gap showed a trend association with PE severity (d [95% CI] = 1.32 [0.00, 2.64]; q = .098). At the follow-up, the group difference was non-significant (d [95% CI] = 0.22 [-0.08, 0.51]; q = .153). No longitudinal case–control divergence reached significance, likely reflecting limited power. Conclusions: Young adults who report PEs display an older-looking brain in early adulthood, consistent with atypical brain maturation. However, the gap does not clearly widen or contract by age 30. Multimodal, longitudinal cohorts spanning adolescence to mid-adulthood are needed to map psychosis-related atypical brain maturation.

Item Type:	Article
Schools:	Schools > Psychology Research Institutes & Centres > Cardiff University Brain Research Imaging Centre (CUBRIC)
Publisher:	Elsevier
ISSN:	2667-1743
Date of First Compliant Deposit:	23 October 2025
Date of Acceptance:	20 October 2025
Last Modified:	24 Oct 2025 14:30
URI:	https://orca.cardiff.ac.uk/id/eprint/181865

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