[4] The biosynthetic pathway in cyanobacteria is unknown, but involvement of BMAA and its structural analog 2,4-diaminobutanoic acid (2,4-DAB) in environmental iron scavenging has been hypothesized.

[19] A study performed in 2015 with vervet monkeys (Chlorocebus sabaeus) in St. Kitts, which are homozygous for the apoE4 gene (a condition which in humans is a risk factor for Alzheimer's disease), found that vervets that were administered BMAA orally developed hallmark histopathology features of Alzheimer's disease, including amyloid beta plaques and neurofibrillary tangle accumulation.

[17][22] Scientists have also found that newborn rats treated with BMAA show a progressive neurodegeneration in the hippocampus, including intracellular fibrillar inclusions, and impaired learning and memory as adults.

[26] Chronic dietary exposure to BMAA is now considered to be a cause of the amyotrophic lateral sclerosis/parkinsonism–dementia complex (ALS/PDC) that had an extremely high rate of incidence among the Chamorro people of Guam.

[28] In the 1950s, ALS/PDC prevalence ratios and death rates for Chamorro residents of Guam and Rota were 50–100 times that of developed countries, including the United States.

[28] No demonstrable heritable or viral factors were found for the disease, and a subsequent decline of ALS/PDC after 1963 on Guam led to the search for responsible environmental agents.

[29] The use of flour made from cycad seed (Cycas micronesica[30]) in traditional food items decreased as that plant became rarer and the Chamorro population became more Americanized following World War II.

[33] As of 2021 studies continued examining BMAA biomagnification in marine and estuarine systems and its possible impact on human health outside of Guam.