Age-related decline in mentalizing skills across adult life span.
In the literature, there are few and conflicting reports regarding age-related changes in adult mentalizing abilities: whereas Happe et al. (1998, Developmental Psychology, 34, 358-362) showed better performances of elderly compared with young subjects in an advanced theory of mind (ToM) task, Mayor et al. (2002, British Journal of Psychology, 93, 465-485) and Sullivan and Ruffmann (2004, British Journal of Psychology, 95(Pt 1), 1-18) found an age-related decline. Former studies addressing the issue compared young to elderly subjects and did not investigate earlier changes in middle-aged adults. To shed light on changes in ToM skills along adulthood, the authors used the revised version of the "Reading the Mind in the Eyes Test" (Baron-Cohen et al., 2001, Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry, 42, 241-251) to compare four groups of people of different ages covering the whole span of adult life. The authors found aged-related decline in ToM skills as early as the fifth decade of life. Awareness of the age-related changes in adult mentalizing is important to differentiate normal aging effects from ToM impairments due to neuropsychiatric diseases.
Pardini
Matteo
M
Department of Neurosciences, Ophthalmology and Genetics, University of Genoa, Genoa, Italy. pardini82@yahoo.it
Nichelli
Paolo F
PF
D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000375:Aging / Q000523:psychology*; D001076:Aptitude / Q000502:physiology; D005149:Facial Expression; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007600:Judgment / Q000502:physiology*; D008136:Longevity; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D011569:Psychiatric Status Rating Scales; D011582:Psychological Theory; D021641:Recognition, Psychology / Q000502:physiology