title: Mental State Inferences Abilities Contribution to Verbal Irony Comprehension in Older Adults with Mild Cognitive Impairment.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  The present study examined mentalizing capacities as well as the relative implication of mentalizing in the comprehension of ironic and sincere assertions among 30 older adults with mild cognitive impairment (MCI) and 30 healthy control (HC) subjects.
  
  
  METHODS
  Subjects were administered a task evaluating mentalizing by means of short stories. A verbal irony comprehension task, in which participants had to identify ironic or sincere statements within short stories, was also administered; the design of the task allowed uniform implication of mentalizing across the conditions.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Findings indicated that participants with MCI have second-order mentalizing difficulties compared to HC subjects. Moreover, MCI participants were impaired compared to the HC group in identifying ironic or sincere stories, both requiring mental inference capacities.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  This study suggests that, in individuals with MCI, difficulties in the comprehension of ironic and sincere assertions are closely related to second-order mentalizing deficits. These findings support previous data suggesting a strong relationship between irony comprehension and mentalizing.
authors.affiliation: École de Psychologie, Université Laval, Québec, QC, Canada G1V 0A6 ; Centre de Recherche de l'Institut Universitaire en Santé Mentale de Québec, Québec, QC, Canada G1J 2G3.
authors.forename: G
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Gaudreau
authors.affiliation: Centre de Recherche de l'Institut Universitaire en Santé Mentale de Québec, Québec, QC, Canada G1J 2G3 ; Département de Réadaptation, Université Laval, Québec, QC, Canada G1V 0A6.
authors.forename: L
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Monetta
authors.affiliation: Centre de Recherche de l'Institut Universitaire en Santé Mentale de Québec, Québec, QC, Canada G1J 2G3 ; Département de Réadaptation, Université Laval, Québec, QC, Canada G1V 0A6.
authors.forename: J
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Macoir
authors.affiliation: Clinique Interdisciplinaire de Mémoire, Département des Sciences Neurologiques, CHU de Québec, Québec, QC, Canada G1J 1Z4.
authors.forename: S
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Poulin
authors.affiliation: Clinique Interdisciplinaire de Mémoire, Département des Sciences Neurologiques, CHU de Québec, Québec, QC, Canada G1J 1Z4.
authors.forename: R
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Laforce
authors.affiliation: École de Psychologie, Université Laval, Québec, QC, Canada G1V 0A6 ; Centre de Recherche de l'Institut Universitaire en Santé Mentale de Québec, Québec, QC, Canada G1J 2G3.
authors.forename: C
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Hudon
mesh_terms: D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D060825:Cognitive Dysfunction / Q000503:physiopathology*; D032882:Comprehension / Q000502:physiology*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D056345:Theory of Mind / Q000502:physiology*; D014925:Wit and Humor as Topic / Q000523:psychology*