Convergent validity of the Brazilian version of the Theory of Mind Task Battery for the assessment of social cognition in older adults

Abstract Theory-of-Mind (ToM) is critical to individual social competence and mental health across the lifespan (Frith, 2008). Though it is often discussed as one broad construct, ToM abilities can be viewed as following a developmental trajectory: from early emotion recognition and gaze following to more advanced inferences about others’ beliefs, perspectives, and intentions (Hutchins et al., 2012). Despite current literature suggesting that ToM abilities may be impaired in late adulthood, there is no consensus regarding whether ToM abilities are differentially affected by age. In this study, we examined younger adults (N=18, aged 19-30) and older adults (N=13, aged 58-76) on their ToM competence across three levels of ToM abilities: Early-ToM (e.g., recognizing a happy face), Basic-ToM (e.g., perspective-taking and false-belief reasoning), and Advanced-ToM (e.g., inferring second-order emotion and false belief). All participants completed a Theory-of-Mind Task Battery consisting of three subscales that assessed the three levels of ToM, where participants viewed vignettes and answered questions about the protagonists’ feelings and beliefs. Overall, younger adults outperformed older adults on the battery, F(1,29)=7.34, p=.011. However, a significant interaction between age and ToM levels (p=.010) revealed that Early and Advanced ToM (ps>.25) were not as affected by age as Basic ToM (p=.007). Older adults have difficulty in inferring others’ perspectives/beliefs while their attributions of emotion and higher-order false beliefs are relatively preserved compared to the younger adults. These findings provide important insights into the impact of age on various levels of ToM and could help inform early detection of ToM decline in normal aging.

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Evaluation of social cognition in post stroke patients: a hemispheric analysis

10.5327/1516-3180.247 ◽

2021 ◽

Author(s):

Nayara Karina Ferreira Pereira ◽

Fábio Ricardo de Oliveira Galvão ◽

Vaneza Mirele Gomes dos Santos ◽

Enio Walker Azevedo Cacho ◽

Marcos Hortes Nisihara Chagas ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Social Cognition ◽

Brain Injury ◽

Theory Of Mind ◽

Right Hemisphere ◽

Test Results ◽

Cross Sectional ◽

Post Stroke ◽

Student’S T ◽

State Examination ◽

Mind Task

Introduction: Social cognition is an increasingly explored field of research in the study of post-acquired brain injury psychiatric disorders, encompasses a number of domains including theory of mind (ToM). The ToM refers to the ability to understand, infer emotions, and predict the behavior of others. ToM deficits can impair information processing, and the laterality of the brain injury can influence the level of impairment. Objectives: To investigate whether laterality of the post-stroke hemispheric lesion influences performance on ToM tasks. Methods: Cross-sectional observational study, with chronic post-stroke subjects, aged ≥18 years, without cognitive deficits suggestive by Mini Mental State Examination (MMSE). The volunteers were submitted to a single evaluation using the Theory of Mind Task Battery (ToM TB) in its version translated and adapted to Portuguese (Brazil). The participants were allocated into two groups: group with right hemisphere injury (RHI) and group with left hemisphere injury (LHI). Comparative statistics were performed based on the ToM TB scores between the two groups using Student’s t-test. Results: Thirty-eight participants (RHI=22 and LHI=16) were included. There was no difference between the RHI and LHI group regarding social cognition assessed by ToM TB (t=1.63; p=0.11). Conclusion: The laterality of brain injury appears to not influence the level of performance on ToM tasks in stroke survivors.

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Are Older Adults’ Difficulties on Emotion Recognition and Theory of Mind Tasks Due to a Decline in General Cognitive Ability?

10.21203/rs.3.rs-1203490/v1 ◽

2022 ◽

Author(s):

Qiuyi Kong ◽

Nicholas Currie ◽

Kangning Du ◽

Ted Ruffman

Keyword(s):

Older Adults ◽

Working Memory ◽

Social Cognition ◽

Theory Of Mind ◽

Fluid Intelligence ◽

Differential Rate ◽

Brain Areas ◽

Contradictory Evidence ◽

Rate Of Decline ◽

Unique Predictor

Abstract Older adults have both worse general cognition and worse social cognition. A frequent suggestion is that worse social cognition is due to worse general cognition. However, previous studies have often provided contradictory evidence. The current study examined this issue with a more extensive battery of tasks for both forms of cognition. We gave 47 young and 40 older adults three tasks to assess general cognition (processing speed, working memory, fluid intelligence) and three tasks to assess their social cognition (emotion and theory-of-mind). Older adults did worse on all tasks and there were correlations between general and social cognition. Although working memory and fluid intelligence were unique predictors of performance on the Emotion Photos task and the Eyes task, Age Group was a unique predictor on all three social cognitiaon tasks. Thus, there were relations between the two forms of cognition but older adults continued to do worse than young adults even after accounting for general cognition. We argue that this pattern of results is due to some overlap in brain areas mediating general and social cognition, but also independence, and with a differential rate of decline in brain areas dedicated to general cognition versus social cognition.

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Executive Functions do not Underlie Performance on the Edinburgh Social Cognition Test (ESCoT) in Healthy Younger and Older Adults

Journal of the International Neuropsychological Society ◽

10.1017/s1355617719001450 ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 26 (5) ◽

pp. 527-538

Author(s):

R. Asaad Baksh ◽

Tereża Bugeja ◽

Sarah E. MacPherson

Keyword(s):

Older Adults ◽

Social Cognition ◽

Theory Of Mind ◽

Social Norms ◽

Processing Speed ◽

Social Cognitive ◽

Cognitive Theory ◽

Interpersonal Understanding ◽

And Performance ◽

The Relationship

AbstractObjective:Current measures of social cognition have shown inconsistent findings regarding the effects of executive function (EF) abilities on social cognitive performance in older adults. The psychometric properties of the different social cognition tests may underlie the disproportional overlap with EF abilities. Our aim was to examine the relationship between social cognition and EF abilities using the Edinburgh Social Cognition Test (ESCoT; Baksh, R.A., Abrahams, S., Auyeung, B., & MacPherson, S.E. (2018). The Edinburgh Social Cognition Test (ESCoT): Examining the effects of age on a new measure of theory of mind and social norm understanding. PloS One, 13(4), e0195818.), a test assessing four different aspects of social cognition: cognitive theory of mind (ToM), affective ToM, interpersonal understanding of social norms, and intrapersonal understanding of social norms.Method:We administered the ESCoT, EF measures of inhibition, set shifting, updating, and a measure of processing speed to 30 younger and 31 older adults. We also administered the Visual Perspective Taking task (VPT) as a ToM test thought to be reliant on EF abilities.Results:Better performance on cognitive ToM was significantly associated with younger age and slower processing speed. Better performance on affective ToM and ESCoT total score was associated with being younger and female. Better performance on interpersonal understanding of social norms was associated with being younger. EF abilities did not predict performance on any subtest of the ESCoT. In contrast, on the VPT, the relationship between age group and performance was fully or partially mediated by processing speed and updating.Conclusions:These findings show that the ESCoT is a valuable measure of different aspects of social cognition and, unlike many established tests of social cognition, performance is not predicted by EF abilities.

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Are Deficits in Social Cognition Linked to Autobiographical Memory in Patients with Alzheimer’s Disease?

Zeitschrift für Neuropsychologie ◽

10.1024/1016-264x/a000187 ◽

2016 ◽

Vol 27 (4) ◽

pp. 257-264 ◽

Cited By ~ 3

Author(s):

Johannes H. Scheidemann ◽

Franz Petermann ◽

Marc Schipper

Keyword(s):

Alzheimer’S Disease ◽

Alzheimer's Disease ◽

Social Cognition ◽

Theory Of Mind ◽

Autobiographical Memory ◽

Positive Relationship ◽

Neuropsychological Test ◽

Clinical Group ◽

Neuropsychological Test Battery ◽

Fluency Task

Abstract. We investigated theory of mind (ToM) deficits in Alzheimer‘s disease (AD) and its possible connection to autobiographical memory (ABM). Patients and matched controls were evaluated and compared using a video-based ToM test, an autobiographical fluency task, and a neuropsychological test battery. We found that ToM deficits were positively associated with semantic ABM in the clinical group, whereas a positive relationship appeared between ToM and episodic ABM in controls. We hypothesize that this reflects the course of the disease as well as that semantic ABM is used for ToM processing, being still accessible in AD. Furthermore, we assume that it is also less efficient, which in turn leads to a specific deficit profile of social cognition.

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Cognición social en niños con trastorno por déficit de atención con hiperactividad: una revisión narrativa de la literatura

Archivos de Neurociencias ◽

10.31157/archneurosciencesmex.v24i2.177 ◽

2019 ◽

Vol 24 (2) ◽

pp. 43-58

Author(s):

Ma. Guillermina Yáñez-Téllez ◽

Daniel Hernández-Torres

Keyword(s):

Social Cognition ◽

Theory Of Mind ◽

Emotion Recognition ◽

Pragmatic Language ◽

Affective Prosody ◽

Palabras Clave

Los niños con trastorno por déficit de atención con hiperactividad (TDAH) presentan problemas en la interacción social, los cuales pueden ser atribuidos a deficiencias en la cognición social (CS), no obstante, esta función ha sido poco estudiada en esta población. El objetivo de este trabajo fue realizar una revisión de la literatura de los últimos 18 años acerca de la CS en niños con TDAH, en los subdominios de teoría de la mente, reconocimiento de emociones en rostros, lenguaje pragmático y prosodia afectiva. Se realizó una búsqueda en las bases de datos PubMed y Scopus, combinando las siguientes palabras clave: “ADHD”, “social cognition”, “theory of mind”, “emotion recognition”, “pragmatic language” y “affective prosody”. Se seleccionaron artículos desde el 2000 hasta el 2018. El reconocimiento de emociones en rostros es el déficit en CS más reportado, encontrándose fallas en la comprensión de gestos de miedo, tristeza, felicidad y enojo, aunque no de manera consistente. Asimismo, se reportan deficiencias en la teoría de la mente, principalmente en la referencia social, entendimiento de emociones básicas, metarrepresentaciones, inferencias de segundo orden y comprensión de juicios sociales complejos.

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Self-serving social strategies: A systematic review of social cognition in narcissism

Current Psychology ◽

10.1007/s12144-021-01661-3 ◽

2021 ◽

Author(s):

Clare M. Eddy

Keyword(s):

Systematic Review ◽

Social Cognition ◽

Theory Of Mind ◽

Emotion Recognition ◽

Cognitive Skills ◽

Cognitive Empathy ◽

Clinical Samples ◽

Social Strategies ◽

Concurrent Administration ◽

Narcissistic Personality

AbstractNarcissistic Personality Disorder is characterised by inflated self-importance, an excessive need for admiration, and a lack of empathy. The interpersonal difficulties associated with narcissistic personality may be becoming more widespread given its increasing prevalence within the general population. This systematic review investigated the relationship between narcissistic personality traits and social cognition (i.e. theory of mind; emotion recognition; empathy; emotional intelligence) in clinical and non-clinical samples. Cognitive empathy (i.e. perspective taking) appears unlikely to be impaired, while affective empathy (relating to another’s emotion state) may be reduced in association with narcissism. Those with grandiose narcissism rate their empathic skills more highly than those with vulnerable narcissism, but concurrent administration of objective measures is rare, limiting insight into the validity of self-ratings. Rather than deficits in aspects of social cognition, the overall pattern could reflect motivation, or advantageous use of social cognitive skills to serve the self. Indeed, interpersonal strategies associated with narcissism (e.g. deception; manipulation) suggest the application of understanding another’s beliefs or desires in the context of low empathy. Further research should seek to explore performance on a wider range of emotion recognition and theory of mind tasks, and whether characteristics such as excessive jealousy and paranoia could reflect hyper-mentalizing.

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Habilidades de Mindfulness y Cognición Social en la predicción de la sintomatología afectiva en Esquizofrenia, Trastorno Obsesivo-Compulsivo y controles sanos

Revista de Psicopatología y Psicología Clínica ◽

10.5944/rppc.24170 ◽

2019 ◽

Vol 24 (1) ◽

Author(s):

Manuel González-Panzano ◽

Luis Borao ◽

Paola Herrera-Mercadal ◽

Daniel Campos ◽

Yolanda López-del-Hoyo ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Social Cognition ◽

Theory Of Mind ◽

Attributional Style ◽

Short Form ◽

Depression Scale ◽

Anxiety And Depression ◽

Five Facet Mindfulness Questionnaire ◽

Obsessive Compulsive ◽

Compulsive Disorder ◽

Mindful Attention Awareness Scale

Abstract: Mindfulness and social cognition skills in the prediction of affective symptomatology in schizophrenia, obsessive-compulsive disorder and nonclinical participants. The aim of the study was to investigate significant predictors of affective symptomatology in schizophrenia, obsessive-compulsive disorder and healthy controls. The sample was of 91 participants who completed the following instruments: the Eye Test (emotional recognition), the Hinting Task (theory of mind), the Ambiguous Intentions and Hostility Questionnaire(AIHQ; attributional style), Interpersonal Reactivity Index (IRI; empathy), the Mindful Attention Awareness Scale (MAAS; mindfulness trait), the Five Facet Mindfulness Questionnaire-Short Form(FFMQ-SF), and the Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale(HADS). Significant predictors of affective symptomatology were: mindfulness (dispositional or trait mindfulness, nonreactivity and nonjudgment), and social cognition (SC) (attributional style and theory of mind). Mediation analysis showed that theory of mind was the only significant mediator of affective symptomatology. This paper shows the role of mindfulness and SC skills in the prediction of affective symptomatology.Keywords: mindfulness, social cognition, theory of mind, affective symptomatology, schizophrenia, obsessive-compulsive disorder.Resumen:El objetivo del estudio fue investigar predictores significativos de sintomatología afectiva en Esquizofrenia (EZ), trastorno obsesivo compulsivo (TOC) y controles no clínicos. La muestra fue de 91 participantes que completaron los siguientes instrumentos: Eyes Test (reconocimiento emocional), Hinting Task (teoría de la mente), Ambiguous Intentions and Hostility Questionnaire (AIHQ; estilo atribucional), Índice de Reactividad Interpersonal (IRI; empatía), Mindful Attention Awareness Scale (MAAS;mindfulness rasgo), Five Facet Mindfulness Questionnaire-Short Form (FFMQ-SF), y Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale (HADS).Los resultados mostraron que el mindfulness (mindfulness rasgo, no reactividad y no juicio) y la cognición social (estilo atribucional y teoría de la mente) fueron predictores significativos. Los análisis de mediación señalaron la variable de teoría de la mente, como único mediador significativo de la sintomatología afectiva.Los resultados de este estudio señalan el papel de las habilidades de mindfulness y cognición social en la predicción de sintomatología afectiva.Palabras clave: mindfulness, cognición social, teoría de la mente, sintomatología afectiva, esquizofrenia, trastorno obsesivo-compulsivo.

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