Understanding brain health can reduce anxiety, but reduce motivation for healthy habits

Understanding your future Alzheimer’s risk does not cause emotional harm, but may accidentally reduce the motivation to maintain healthy habits, according to a groundbreaking study published on May 7, 2025 in Alzheimer’s and Dementia.

As medicine moves towards early detection and prevention of Alzheimer’s disease, this study provides important insights, especially for people with a family history or other risk factors for their condition.

Brain scans, emotions and behaviors

The researchers followed 199 cognitively healthy adults who underwent specialized brain scans to detect amyloid beta, a protein associated with Alzheimer’s disease. Participants (mostly from observational studies rather than clinical trials) investigated their anxiety, depression, memory concerns, and motivation for lifestyle changes, before and six months later.

These findings reveal how people make surprising patterns in how they learn how to learn brain health.

People who receive “good news” (no amyloid accumulation) show significant emotional improvement. Their anxiety, depression and memory complaints are greatly reduced. However, their motivation to maintain healthy lifestyle habits has also dropped significantly.

For those who know their amyloid levels are elevated (with a higher risk of their cognitive decline) it is more subtle. They showed no increase in depression or memory complaints, and even reported moderate decreases in anxiety. But like low-risk groups, they also show motivation for a healthy lifestyle change.

Key findings that challenge hypotheses

The study challenges people respond to learning about the risk profile of Alzheimer’s:

• Understanding elevated amyloid status does not seem to cause psychological harm
• Just knowing the outcome (both positive or negative) will reduce overall negative emotions
• The motivation for lifestyle improvement no matter the outcome
• People with lower education may struggle to deal with “good news” results

“The discovery of revealing the presence of amyloid did not negatively affect the participants,” said Michal Schnaider Beeri, director of the Jacqueline Kriegel and Jacqueline Kriegel and Jacqueline Kriegel and Jacqueline Kriegel and Jacqueline Kriegel and Jacqueline Kriegel and Jacqueline Kriegel and Jacqueline Kriegel and Jacqueline Kriegel and Jacqueline Kriegel and Jacqueline Kriegel and Jacqueline Kriegel and Jacqueline Kriegel and Jacqueline Kriegel and Jacqueline Kriegel and Jacqueline Kriegel and Jacqueline Kriegel and Jacqueline Kriegel and Jacqueline Kriegel and Jacqueline Kriegel and Jacqueline Kriegel and Jacqueline Kriegel and Jacqueline Kriegel and Jacqueline Kriegel and Jacqueline Kriegel and Jacqueline Kriegel and Jacqueline Kriegel and Jacqueline Kriegel and Jacqueline Kriegel and Jacqueline Kriegel and Jacqueline Kriegel and Jacqueline Kriegel and Jacqueline Kriegel and Jacqueline Kriegel and Jacqueline Kriegel and Jacqueline Kriegel and Jacqueline Kriegel and Jacqueline Kriegel and Jacqueline Kriegel and Jacqueline Kriegel and Jacqueline Kriegel and Jacqueline Kriegel and Jacqueline Kriegel and Jacqueline Kriegel and Jacqueline Kriegel and Jacqueline Kriegel and Jacqueline Kriegel and Jacqueline Kriegel and Jacqueline Kriegel and Jacqueline Kriegel and Jacqueline Kriegel and Jacqueline Kriegel and Jacque

Sapir Golan Shekhtman, the lead author of the study, pointed to a trend about trends: “The results highlight how people can easily lose motivation to change their lifestyles to maintain cognitive health. Strategies to maintain these healthy behaviors are crucial.”

Impact on future care

Declining motivational phenomena present challenges for healthcare providers, who often recommend physical exercise, cognitive engagement, social connection and a heart-healthy diet to reduce the risk of dementia. Even people who know they have amyloid accumulations (the most motivated to make changes in theory) show that there is less interest in maintaining these protective behaviors.

The study also determined that people with lower education levels were more likely to respond adversely to non-preset amyloid results, suggesting the need for a more tailored communication approach.

“These findings have greater significance in the era of preventive Alzheimer’s disease treatments,” explained study leader Orit Lesman-Segev. “When this treatment is available, cognitive normal people may be screened for biomarkers of Alzheimer’s disease to obtain targeted therapies. Therefore, it is crucial to better understand the response to disclosure and optimize the disclosure process.”

As medicine continues to move towards early detection and prevention of Alzheimer’s disease, this study provides key insights into human factors that will influence these advances in clinical practice. The challenge now is how to keep people motivated to protect lifestyle changes, regardless of their test results.