You may be 40 years old, but could your brain already be showing signs of accelerated aging? New research involving more than 18,000 people suggests that the answer may depend on much more than genetics or your date of birth.

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The researchers found that combinations of unfavorable environmental and social conditions were associated with greater differences between estimated brain age and chronological age.

Interestingly, models combining multiple exposures explained substantially more variation in brain-aging measurements than models examining individual exposures separately.

The study also suggested that physical and social environmental conditions were associated with different aspects of brain aging.

Physical environmental factors showed stronger associations with structural measures, including regions involved in memory, movement, and emotional processing.

Social environmental factors were more closely associated with functional brain-network measurements.

These findings support the idea that brain health is influenced