Knowing Brain Health Status Eases Anxiety But Reduces Motivation For Healthy Habits

Learning about your future Alzheimer’s risk through brain scans doesn’t cause emotional harm but might unexpectedly reduce motivation to maintain healthy habits, according to groundbreaking research published May 7, 2025 in Alzheimer’s & Dementia.

The study offers important insights as medicine moves toward earlier detection and prevention of Alzheimer’s disease, particularly for people with family history or other risk factors who want to know their status.

Brain Scans, Emotions, and Behavior

Researchers followed 199 cognitively healthy adults who underwent specialized brain scans to detect amyloid beta, a protein linked to Alzheimer’s disease. The participants—mostly from observational studies rather than clinical trials—completed surveys about their anxiety, depression, memory concerns, and motivation for lifestyle changes before and six months after learning their results.

The findings revealed surprising patterns in how people respond emotionally to learning about their brain health status.

People who received “good news” (no amyloid buildup) showed significant emotional improvements. Their anxiety, depression, and memory complaints all decreased substantially. However, their motivation to maintain healthy lifestyle habits also declined significantly.

For those who learned they had elevated amyloid levels—placing them at higher risk for future cognitive decline—the response was more nuanced. They didn’t show increases in depression or memory complaints, and even reported modest decreases in anxiety. But like the low-risk group, they also showed reduced motivation for healthy lifestyle changes.

Key Findings That Challenge Assumptions

The research challenges several assumptions about how people respond to learning their Alzheimer’s risk status:

• Learning about elevated amyloid status does not appear to cause psychological harm
• Simply knowing results—whether positive or negative—tends to decrease negative feelings overall
• Motivation for lifestyle improvements declines regardless of results
• People with less education may have more difficulty processing “good news” results

“The findings suggest that disclosing amyloid presence does not negatively affect participants, and simply knowing the results seems to decrease negative feelings overall,” said Michal Schnaider Beeri, director of the Herbert and Jacqueline Krieger Klein Alzheimer’s Research Center at the Rutgers Brain Health Institute and study co-author.

The study’s lead author, Sapir Golan Shekhtman, noted a concerning trend: “The results highlight how easily people lose motivation to make lifestyle changes aimed at maintaining cognitive health. Strategies to sustain these healthy behaviors are crucial.”

Implications for Future Care

The declining motivation phenomenon presents a challenge for healthcare providers, who often recommend physical activity, cognitive engagement, social connections, and heart-healthy diets to reduce dementia risk. Even people who learn they have amyloid buildup—theoretically most motivated to make changes—showed decreased interest in maintaining these protective behaviors.

The study also identified that people with lower education levels were more likely to have unfavorable responses to non-elevated amyloid results, suggesting the need for more tailored communication approaches.

“These findings hold even greater significance in an era moving toward preventive Alzheimer’s Disease therapies,” explained study leader Orit Lesman-Segev from Israel’s Sheba Medical Center. “When such treatments become available, cognitively normal individuals will likely undergo screening with Alzheimer’s biomarkers to qualify for targeted therapies. Therefore, it is essential to better understand the response to disclosure and optimize the disclosure process.”

As medicine continues moving toward early detection and prevention of Alzheimer’s disease, this research provides crucial insights into the human factors that will shape how these advances are implemented in clinical practice. The challenge now becomes how to maintain people’s motivation for protective lifestyle changes regardless of their test results.