Advancing Brain Health Science Together: 2025 Highlights from the
Brain Health Registry
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As 2025 winds down, we take a moment to reflect on all we’ve accomplished together.
Since its beginning in 2014, the Brain Health Registry has had a meaningful impact on brain health research. We now have more than 115,000 participants and study partners enrolled! Many of you have been with us for years—some over a decade—returning regularly to the Brain Health Registry website to answer questions and complete brain challenges. Thanks to your continued participation, we’ve gathered an incredible amount of information about memory, thinking, and health. We are grateful for your dedication, which allows our scientific team and our collaborators to answer important questions in brain research today.
Quick Online Survey Predicts Early Brain Changes
One exciting finding from this year involves a Brain Health Registry survey in which participants indicate whether they have noticed recent changes in their ability to perform complex day-to-day tasks, such as managing their finances or navigating a new neighborhood. We found that responses to this survey can help predict future performance on cognitive tests. That’s a big deal! It means that simple, online tools that are easy to use from home and low-cost to run could one day help identify people who may be at higher risk for cognitive decline. This has the potential to make research and clinical care more efficient and accessible for everyone, and to help individuals at risk for cognitive decline receive earlier treatment than they might have otherwise.
Connecting Communities for Brain Health
Brain Health Registry data continues to help researchers understand how to reach and include people from all backgrounds in Alzheimer’s research—an essential part of making sure studies reflect the diversity of the population. Taking community needs and priorities into consideration is essential for bringing more people into research and keeping participants engaged over time, especially those who may be more likely to develop Alzheimer’s disease. We’ve learned the importance of building strong partnerships with people across different communities. We are deeply grateful to our Community Science Partners for sharing their time, experiences, and insights, all of which helps make the Brain Health Registry more representative and welcoming to all.
Study Partners First: Join the Journey
This year also brought the expansion of Study Partner First, a new way to get involved in the Brain Health Registry. A study partner is someone who knows you well and can answer questions that help form a clearer picture about your brain health. As a participant, you may have already invited someone to serve as your study partner. Or you may have been invited to serve as a study partner for someone else. The Study Partner First initiative allows study partners to be the first or only point of contact with the Brain Health Registry. Now a study partner can enroll and invite their loved one to join—or they can simply participate on their loved one’s behalf if that’s the better fit. With this approach we’re reaching more families and care networks, and we’re thrilled!
The best part? Study Partner First is now open to everyone! If you’d like to enroll as a study partner for a loved one, just click here, log in, and start answering a few questions about them.
As always, we thank you for being such an important part of the Brain Health Registry community. Your commitment and curiosity are helping advance brain science. We can’t wait to see what we’ll accomplish together in 2026!
