The neural basis of prosocial effort-based decision making in older adults at risk for Alzheimer’s disease
Prosocial incentives may be an effective strategy for motivating effortful behavior in older adults at risk for Alzheimer's disease. Although APOE4 carriers show greater aversion to initiating effort, they exhibit heightened vigor when working for prosocial compared to self-oriented rewards. Leveraging prosocial motivation and its underlying neural circuitry may therefore represent a promising strategy to sustain goal-directed behavior and decision making, promote physical and cognitive activity, and support emotional and brain health in aging.
Authors
- Maiya R. Geddes (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0009-0000-2371-934X)
- Caitlin Walker (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-0977-8276)
- M. Catherine Bennett (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-6178-8610)
- Laurel S. Morris (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-5862-6650)
- Garance Barnoin
- R. Nathan Spreng
- Sylvia Villeneuve
- Judes Poirier
- Jennifer Tremblay-Mercier
Institutions
- Montreal Neurological Institute and Hospital (CA)
- Douglas Mental Health University Institute (CA)
- McGill University Health Centre (CA)
- University of Oxford (GB)
- Indiana University Bloomington (US)
- McGill Genome Centre (CA)
- McGill University (CA)
- Massachusetts Institute of Technology (US)
- Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai (US)
Publication Details
- Journal
- medRxiv
- Published
- 2026-01-13
- DOI
- https://doi.org/10.64898/2026.01.10.26343857
- Primary Topic
- Dementia and Cognitive Impairment Research
- Type
- article
- Field-Weighted Citation Impact
- 0.00
Funders
- McGill University
- Fondation Brain Canada
- Canadian Bee Research Fund
- Government of Canada
- Alzheimer Society
- Canada First Research Excellence Fund
- National Institutes of Health
- Alzheimer Society Research Program
- Health Canada
- Canadian Institutes of Health Research
- Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada
- Fonds de Recherche du Québec - Santé