Reflecting on 2025: The Impact of Gratitude on Brain Health

Transcript

Intro: I'm Dr. Nathaniel Chin, and you're listening to Dementia Matters, a podcast about Alzheimer's disease. Dementia Matters is a production of the Wisconsin Alzheimer's Disease Research Center. Our goal is to educate listeners on the latest news in Alzheimer's disease research and caregiver strategies. Thanks for joining us.

Dr. Nathaniel Chin: Welcome back to Dementia Matters. I'm Nathaniel Chin, and today's episode is a short end-of-the-year reflection grounded in something we don't always talk about in dementia care and brain health: gratitude. Gratitude can sound almost too simple, like a greeting card word. Over the last decade, researchers have been taking it seriously because gratitude isn't just a feeling. It's a mental process. It's attention, it's memory, it's meaning-making. Those are all brain based. One study I want to highlight comes from Japan using data from a project called the Neuron to Environmental Impact Across Generation Study. This was published in the Archives of Gerontology and Geriatrics in 2022. The researchers looked at 478 community-dwelling older adults, people 65 and older, and asked a straightforward question: Is a person's level of gratitude associated with their cognitive function? If there is a connection, could it relate to differences in the brain? In the study, participants completed two items from a gratitude questionnaire. They took a common cognitive screening test called the Mini-Mental State Examination, known as the MMSE, and they also had MRI scans looking at the volume of certain brain regions. Here's what the team found. Older adults who reported higher levels of gratitude tended to score a bit higher on cognitive testing, and this is after adjusting for age, sex, education, marital status, household income and depressive symptoms. Higher gratitude was also associated with a larger volume in the right amygdala and larger volume in the left fusiform gyrus, areas linked to emotional processing, social information and memory-related functions. In their statistical model, the amygdala volume partially mediated the relationship between gratitude and cognition, suggesting a possible biological pathway connecting emotional processing with cognitive performance. Now, I want to be careful here. This was cross-sectional, a snapshot in time. We can't say gratitude causes better cognition. It could be that people with better cognitive function find it easier to reflect, connect and feel gratitude. There could be other factors like social connection and overall health playing a role too. The study did show an association with lower gratitude and depressive symptoms. It does appear to be a relationship with mood, which we recognize as a risk factor for cognitive decline. Even with those cautions, I think the study is meaningful because it points to a bigger idea. The emotional and social life of an older adult is not separate from brain health. In dementia care, we see this every day. We see how isolation and depression can worsen function. We see how stress changes sleep, motivation and attention. We see how feeling safe, seen and supported can help someone do better, even when memory is changing. Maybe gratitude isn't a magic trick. Maybe it might be one small practical way to strengthen what we often call cognitive reserve, or at the very least to support emotional resilience, connection and meaning. If you want a small experiment for the next week, consider joining me in this trial. Once a day, name one specific thing you appreciated in the last 24 hours. Not my family in general, though that counts, but something concrete, like my sister texted me back. The nurse explained things clearly. My dad smiled at a song. Someone held the door. We made it through a hard appointment. Specificity matters because it forces the brain to retrieve a real moment, and that act of retrieval is part of how we build meaning. As we wrap up 2025, I want to share some gratitude of my own. I'm grateful for my family and my friends, my source of comfort, especially for their patience and understanding when I'm not always as present as I want to be. I'm also deeply grateful for my colleagues who continue to inspire me through the work we do together. To my producer, Caoilfhinn Rauwerdink, thank you for keeping the show together. Your behind the scenes work makes all of this possible. Beyond Madison and UW, I'm grateful for the people living with cognitive change and for their families and caregivers who show up again and again in ways that don't make headlines but absolutely deserve recognition. I'm grateful for clinicians, researchers, social workers, nurses and community partners who keep pushing for better care, better science and better support. I'm grateful for you, our listeners. Because of your support, we were able to publish 25 episodes this year, covering topics ranging from navigating an MCI diagnosis and grief, to clinical trials, to emerging research on things like microplastics and technology use in the brain. Thanks to you, this show reached listeners in over 125 countries across the globe, which is honestly incredible to think about. Thank you for listening. Thank you for sharing episodes. Thank you to all of our guests this year for trusting us with their research, insights and personal experiences. As we head into 2026, we'd love your help shaping what Dementia Matters becomes next. If you'd like to share feedback, please take a few minutes to complete our listener survey. It's anonymous, it has 15 questions and it takes about five minutes. The survey will be open from now until January 14th, and you can find the link down in the episode description. If you enjoy the show and you'd like another way to support our mission, please consider donating to the Dementia Matters Fund through the UW Initiative to End Alzheimer's. Donations support outreach and production so we can keep reporting on the latest in Alzheimer's research, news and caregiver strategies. You can find the link to make an end-of-the-year gift in the show notes. Wherever you're listening from and whatever your connection is to dementia, thank you for being here. If this season has been heavy, I hope you're finding moments of steadiness. If it's been hopeful, I hope you're finding ways to share that hope with someone else. If you're somewhere in between, that's okay too. We'll be back in 2026 with new conversations and new guests. Until then, take care of yourselves, take care of each other and we'll see you next time on Dementia Matters.

Outro: Thank you for listening to Dementia Matters. Follow us on Apple Podcasts, Spotify or wherever you listen. Or tell your smart speaker to play the Dementia Matters podcast. Please rate us on your favorite podcast app. It helps other people find our show and lets us know how we're doing. If you enjoy our show and want to support our work, consider making a gift to the Dementia Matters Fund through the UW Initiative to End Alzheimer's. All donations go toward outreach and production. Donate at the link in the description. Dementia Matters is brought to you by the Wisconsin Alzheimer's Disease Research Center at the University of Wisconsin–Madison. It receives funding from private, university, state and national sources, including a grant from the National Institutes on Aging for Alzheimer's Disease Research. This episode of Dementia Matters was produced and edited by Caoilfhinn Rauwerdink. Our musical jingle is “Cases to Rest” by Blue Dot Sessions. To learn more about the Wisconsin Alzheimer's Disease Research Center, check out our website at adrc.wisc.edu. That's adrc.wisc.edu and follow us on Facebook and Twitter. If you have any questions or comments, email us at dementiamatters@medicine.wisc.edu. Thanks for listening.