Associations of Social Determinants of Health, Allostatic Load, and Brain Age Gaps in Adolescence

Social determinants of health (SDOH) are fundamental drivers of behavioral outcomes; however, their impact on adolescents’ brain age gap (BAG)—an integrated neural marker reflecting deviations from normative brain maturation and potential brain plasticity—remain poorly understood. Moreover, the biological mechanisms underlying the effects are unknown. We conducted a prospective cohort analysis using magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) data from the Adolescent Brain Cognitive Development study (T1: n = 7330, 46.9