Your Racing Thoughts Might Be Stealing Your Memory: What 424 Older Adults Reveal About Repetitive Negative Thinking
A new study connects the endless mental loops we all experience to measurable cognitive decline—and the link is stronger than you’d think.
Ever find yourself replaying that awkward conversation from three days ago? Or spiraling through worst-case scenarios about things that haven’t happened yet? I’m a negatively-biased person by default, so avoiding that mental quicksand is a challenge for me. But here’s the thing: this isn’t just an annoying habit.
The research is showing that these repetitive negative thought patterns—what scientists call RNT—might actually be chipping away at our cognitive function as we age. And honestly? It’s obvious that positive people generally do better in life, even if their positivity borders on delusion. So maybe there’s something to this.
Adults with the highest levels of repetitive negative thinking scored 2.3 points lower on cognitive assessments compared to those with the lowest levels—a difference that remained significant even after accounting for age, education, and lifestyle factors.
What’s the Big Idea?
The study is a cross-sectional investigation of 424 community-dwelling older adults in Wuhan, China, examining whether those mental loops we can’t seem to escape actually correlate with measurable declines in cognitive function. Researchers assessed participants using two validated tools: the Perseverative Thinking Questionnaire (PTQ) to measure RNT levels and the Montreal Cognitive Assessment (MoCA) to evaluate cognitive performance.
Higher RNT scores were associated with lower cognitive function scores across multiple domains—visuospatial abilities, naming, memory, and abstract reasoning. Think about it: the participants in the highest quartile of repetitive negative thinking showed cognitive scores comparable to those several years older. The relationship held up even after controlling for the usual suspects—age, education, occupation, income, marital status, and chronic diseases.
What makes this particularly interesting is that RNT isn’t just worry or rumination in isolation. It’s a transdiagnostic process—meaning it shows up across 13 different categories of psychological disorders, from depression to anxiety to sleep disorders. Rather than being a symptom of one specific condition, RNT appears to be a common pathway through which various mental health struggles might contribute to cognitive decline. The researchers divided participants into four groups based on their RNT scores, and the pattern was clear: as RNT levels climbed, cognitive performance dropped.
Why Should You Care?
The implications here are pretty straightforward. If you’re constantly caught in negative thought spirals—replaying past mistakes, worrying about future disasters, dwelling on problems you can’t solve—you might be doing more than just stressing yourself out. The evidence suggests you could be affecting your brain’s ability to function optimally. What’s compelling is that this isn’t about occasional worry or normal reflection. RNT is characterized by thoughts that are repetitive, difficult to control, and focused on negative content. It’s the difference between thinking “I should prepare for that presentation” and spending three hours mentally rehearsing every way it could go wrong.
The practical relevance becomes clearer when you consider the subgroup findings. The negative association between RNT and cognitive function was most pronounced in adults aged 60-79 with at least a junior high school education. Why does education level matter? The researchers suggest that people with higher education might have greater capacity to recognize and articulate their repetitive negative thoughts, making the assessment more accurate. Or perhaps their cognitive demands are different, making the impact of RNT more noticeable. Either way, if you’re in that demographic and you recognize these thought patterns in yourself, this research suggests it’s worth addressing them—not just for your mental health, but for your cognitive longevity.
What’s particularly troubling is the potential mechanism. RNT appears to affect brain structures involved in cognitive control and emotion regulation, particularly the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex and anterior cingulate cortex. Think of it as your brain’s limited resources being constantly diverted to rehashing the same negative content, leaving less capacity for attention, executive function, and memory formation. It’s like running multiple resource-intensive programs in the background of your computer—eventually, performance suffers.
What’s Next on the Horizon?
The research points toward several promising directions. First, we need longitudinal cohort studies—following people over time to establish whether high RNT actually causes cognitive decline, or if early cognitive changes make people more prone to repetitive negative thinking. The current study is cross-sectional, meaning it’s a snapshot in time, which limits our ability to draw causal conclusions. Who knows, maybe soon we’ll see multi-center trials across different populations to determine if the relationship holds across cultures and demographics.
Second, intervention studies are critical. If RNT is indeed a modifiable risk factor for cognitive decline, then developing and testing interventions becomes urgent. Could cognitive behavioral therapy, mindfulness training, or other psychological interventions that reduce RNT also protect cognitive function? That’s the question we need answered. There’s also the intriguing possibility of incorporating RNT assessment into routine health screenings for older adults, similar to how we screen for depression or hypertension.
The researchers also highlight the need to explore the mechanisms more deeply. How exactly does RNT translate into structural and functional brain changes? What role do inflammation, stress hormones like cortisol, and other biological pathways play? Understanding these mechanisms could open up additional intervention targets—perhaps medications or lifestyle modifications that could break the link between negative thinking patterns and cognitive decline.
Safety, Ethics, and Caveats
The study has several important limitations worth considering. First, it’s cross-sectional, so we can’t establish causation—only association. Maybe people with early cognitive decline are more prone to RNT rather than the other way around. Second, the sample came entirely from two districts in Wuhan, using convenience sampling. That limits generalizability—would we see the same patterns in rural areas? In different countries? Among different ethnic groups?
There’s also the issue of self-report bias. Both RNT and some aspects of cognitive function were assessed through questionnaires, which means participants’ ability to accurately report their experiences matters. People with cognitive impairment might struggle to accurately assess their own thought patterns. The researchers tried to minimize bias by excluding individuals with diagnosed dementia or severe mental illness, but some bias likely remains.
Interestingly, the correlation between RNT and cognitive function disappeared in adults aged 80-90 and those with only elementary education or less. This could mean the relationship doesn’t exist in these groups, or it could reflect measurement issues—perhaps the assessment tools don’t work as well in these populations. The researchers suggest that increased brain aging in the oldest group might alter the relationship, or that people with lower education have less capacity to perceive and express RNT in ways the questionnaire captures.
What This Could Mean for You
The research suggests that becoming aware of repetitive negative thinking patterns—and actively working to reduce them—might be a practical strategy for protecting cognitive health as you age. You might start by simply noticing when you’re caught in these loops. Are you replaying conversations? Catastrophizing about the future? Dwelling on problems without moving toward solutions?
Once you notice the patterns, you could try interrupting them. Some evidence supports mindfulness-based approaches—when you catch yourself spiraling, acknowledge the thought without judgment, then intentionally redirect attention to the present moment. Other people find cognitive restructuring helpful: when a repetitive negative thought appears, consciously challenge it or reframe it. Is the thought actually true? What evidence contradicts it? What would you tell a friend having the same thought?
Physical activity and social engagement might also help, not just by improving overall brain health but by providing alternative focus points that compete with repetitive negative thinking. If you notice RNT becoming difficult to control on your own—or if it’s interfering with daily functioning—working with a mental health professional trained in cognitive behavioral therapy or similar approaches could be worthwhile. The point isn’t to become unrealistically positive or to suppress all negative thoughts. It’s to avoid getting stuck in unproductive mental loops that might be affecting more than just your mood.
Explore the Full Study:
Repetitive negative thinking is associated with cognitive function decline in older adults: a cross-sectional study - Ye et al., BMC Psychiatry (2025)