India, Nov. 23 -- Loneliness is not something most people think back to until much later in life, but new research suggests those early years may quietly shape the brain for decades. A team working with data from the China Health and Retirement Longitudinal Study (CHARLS) found that people who said they felt lonely as children carried a noticeably higher risk of dementia as adults. The increase was not small either - a 41 per cent jump compared to those who did not grow up feeling isolated.

The same group also experienced quicker age-related cognitive decline, slipping faster than their peers as they moved into their fifties and sixties. The research was published in JAMA Network Open.

Cognition naturally softens with age. Memory slows,...