Teenagers with type 1 diabetes have changed brains

The brain activity of young people with type 1 diabetes could undergo some major changes as compared to those of the same age who do not have the condition, a new study has claimed. When children with type 1 diabetes reach late adolescence and early adulthood, the research, published in Diabetes Care, showed that their brain volume and T2 relaxation time – a measure of tissue health – have lessened.
Led by scientists from the Brain Research Institute in Heidelberg, Australia, the research involved magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) to assess changes in brain volume and T2 relaxation time linked to age for a group of 79 type 1 diabetic youth with an average age of nearly 21, and compared them with a group of 50 healthy participants of a similar average age.
It was revealed that the participants with type 1 diabetes experienced a negative correlation between age and brain change, with a reduction in brain volume and T2 relaxation time in multiple brain regions, while there was a only a small change noted in the control group.
It was reported that “Findings suggest the neuro-developmental pathways of youth with type 1 diabetes have diverged from those of their healthy peers by late adolescence and early adulthood but the explanation for this phenomenon remains to be clarified.”