Neuropsychiatric Implications of AI Overexposure: The Potential for Cognitive Decline and Alzheimer’s Neuropathology

Abstract

Artificial intelligence (AI) is rapidly reshaping human life by influencing how people think, process information, and make decisions. While its expanding presence across modern society offers significant advantages, this narrative Letter to the Editor interpretively examines whether unregulated dependence on AI may jeopardize cognitive well-being. Emerging, largely correlational evidence suggests that prolonged and passive use of AI tools is associated with cognitive offloading, weakened memory, heightened stress, and reduced problem-solving ability, although a direct causal relationship remains unestablished. EEG and neuroimaging findings, including reduced hippocampal activation during offloaded tasks, raise questions about early changes resembling Alzheimer’s neuropathology, alongside concerns such as sleep disruption, neuroinflammation, and diminished intrinsic neural engagement. Yet AI also holds promise for detecting early neurodegenerative risk and supporting brain-health research. This editorial examines this dual reality and argues these potential harms warrant timely attention rather than alarm. Stakeholder-specific strategies spanning individual digital hygiene, developer-level design features, policy guidelines, and longitudinal research are proposed, together with clear guidelines limiting passive and prolonged use, to balance innovation with caution. Protecting neural stability requires deliberate, evidence-informed action before increasing AI dependence becomes an entrenched public health concern.