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| Example items from the Reading the Mind in the Eyes Test (RMET; Baron-Cohen et al., 2001; Bölte, 2005). For each photograph, the most appropriate mental state term shall be selected out of four response options. Correct responses are (A) insisting, (B) tentative, (C) serious, and (D) cautious. Pictures are taken from Bölte (2005).
Source publication
Social cognition, in particular mindreading, enables the understanding of another individual's feelings, intentions, desires, and mental states. The Reading the Mind in the Eyes Test (RMET) captures the ability to identify mental states from gaze. We investigated RMET accuracy in the context of age and cognition across the whole adult age-range (19...
Contexts in source publication
Context 1
... picture is presented with four adjectives of which the one describing the pictured mental state best should be selected. Figure 1 illustrates four test stimuli. Computerized assessment was self-paced and needed approximately 10-15 min for completion. ...
Context 2
... may be best explained by the fact that these measures strongly overlap in their focus on verbal content and, thus, strongly address verbal abilities. A conceptual representation of the response alternatives given with each RMET item is required for target word selection (Baron-Cohen et al., 1997), i.e., the individual must know what the response alternatives mean to select the most appropriate term. Consequently, a comprehensive vocabulary potentially facilitates proper task completion. ...
Citations
... Meta-analysis of functional MRI (fMRI) studies of ToM, that investigated brain activity during the reading the mind task, demonstrated the involvement of left inferior frontal area, middle cingulate gyrus and posterior temporal cortices (Schurz et al. 2014). ToM is often impaired in older individuals, particularly for social emotions (Bailey et al. 2008;Lee et al. 2021;Kynast et al. 2020). ...
The cingulate cortex is a limbic structure involved in multiple functions, including emotional processing, pain, cognition, memory, and spatial orientation. The main goal of this structural Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) study was to investigate whether age affects the cingulate cortex uniformly across its anteroposterior dimensions and determine if the effects of age differ based on sex, hemisphere, and regional cingulate anatomy, in a large cohort of healthy individuals across the adult lifespan. The second objective aimed to explore whether the decline in emotional recognition accuracy and Theory of Mind (ToM) is linked to the potential age-related reductions in the pregenual anterior cingulate (ACC) and anterior midcingulate (MCC) cortices. We recruited 126 healthy participants (18–85 years) for this study. MRI datasets were acquired on a 4.7 T system. The cingulate cortex was manually segmented into the pregenual ACC, anterior MCC, posterior MCC, and posterior cingulate cortex (PCC). We observed negative relationships between the presence and length of the superior cingulate gyrus and bilateral volumes of pregenual ACC and anterior MCC. Age showed negative effects on the volume of all cingulate cortical subregions bilaterally except for the right anterior MCC. Most of the associations between age and the cingulate subregional volumes were linear. We did not find a significant effect of sex on cingulate cortical volumes. However, stronger effects of age were observed in men compared to women. This study also demonstrated that performance on an emotional recognition task was linked to pregenual ACC volume, whist the ToM capabilities were related to the size of pregenual ACC and anterior MCC. These results suggest that the cingulate cortex contributes to emotional recognition ability and ToM across the adult lifespan.
... So, our correlational approach allowed us to identify, in MCI patients, individual differences in complex emotion recognition. That is, whereas RMET performance declines gradually with age [35], the physiopathological mechanisms linked to MCI could make these deficits worse. Indeed, a recent review postulated the AD patients' impaired ability to recognize facial emotions [36]. ...
Objective: Dementia is a major public health problem with high needs for early detection, efficient treatment, and prognosis evaluation. Social cognition impairment could be an early dementia indicator and can be assessed with emotion recognition evaluation tests. The purpose of this study is to investigate the link between different brain imaging modalities and cognitive status in Mild Cognitive Impairment (MCI) patients, with the goal of uncovering potential physiopathological mechanisms based on social cognition performance. Methods: The relationship between the Reading the Mind in the Eyes Test (RMET) and some clinical and biochemical variables ([18F]FDG PET-CT and anatomical MR parameters, neuropsychological evaluation, and CSF biomarkers) was studied in 166 patients with MCI by using a correlational approach. Results: The RMET correlated with neuropsychological variables, as well as with structural and functional brain parameters obtained from the MR and FDG-PET imaging evaluation. However, significant correlations between the RMET and CSF biomarkers were not found. Discussion: Different neuroimaging parameters were found to be related to an emotion recognition task in MCI. This analysis identified potential minimally-invasive biomarkers providing some knowledge about the physiopathological mechanisms in MCI.
... Thus, the participant needs to pay attention, retrieve previous emotional experiences and associated information and needs to read and know the words that are presented. It is therefore likely that particularly good verbal ability (Peterson & Miller, 2012), verbal memory (Dalkner et al., 2019) and attention enhance RMET test performance (Kynast et al., 2020). Additionally, the RMET relies on the detection of subtle facial clues (Oakley, Brewer, Bird, & Catmur, 2016), and RMET performance may therefore be facilitated by subtle cognitive processes, such as attention to detail and (analogic) reasoning [i.e. the ability to identify shared similarities in different situations, (Seo et al., 2020)]. ...
Background:
Schizophrenia (SZ) and autism spectrum disorders (ASD) are characterized by difficulties in theory of mind (ToM). We examined group differences in performance on a ToM-related test and associations with an estimated IQ.
Methods:
Participants [N = 1227, SZ (n = 563), ASD (n = 159), and controls (n = 505), 32.2% female] completed the Reading the Mind in the Eyes Test (RMET) and assessments of cognitive ability. Associations between IQ and group on RMET were investigated with regression analyses.
Results:
SZ (d = 0.73, p < 0.001) and ASD (d = 0.37, p < 0.001) performed significantly worse on the RMET than controls. SZ performed significantly worse than ASD (d = 0.32, p = 0.002). Adding IQ to the model, SZ (d = 0.60, p < 0.001) and ASD (d = 0.44, p < 0.001) continued to perform significantly worse than controls, but no longer differed from each other (d = 0.13, p = 0.30). Small significant negative correlations between symptom severity and RMET performance were found in SZ (PANSS positive: r = -0.10, negative: r = -0.11, both p < 0.05). A small non-significant negative correlation was found for Autism Diagnostic Observation Schedule scores and RMET in ASD (r = -0.08, p = 0.34).
Conclusions:
SZ and ASD are characterized by impairments in RMET. IQ contributed significantly to RMET performance and accounted for group differences in RMET between SZ and ASD. This suggests that non-social cognitive ability needs to be included in comparative studies of the two disorders.
... Thus, the literature seems to have paid little attention to the usefulness of FER programs in ASD adults with ICH, although it has been shown that the deficit persists and even worsens in adulthood (Kynast et al., 2020;O'Hearn et al., 2014), and that low fonctionning favours deficits in facial emotion recognition (Gray et al., 1983;Harms et al., 2010). ...
Objectives : A large body of work supports the presence of a facial emotion processing deficit in autism spectrum disorders (ASD). Although several training programs have been created to remedy this difficulty, few of them have been validated with an ASD population with low fonctionning and, to our knowledge, only two programs are specifically designed for this population. This article reports on the controlled evaluation of the facial emotion recognition training program (FERT©) with adults ASD with low fonctionning. Method : Six adults ASD with low fonctionning were evaluated before and after the program using the NEPSY II Affect Recognition Test. The program consisted of four modules : psychoeducation, attention and fixed gaze, facial emotions, and matching. A statistical comparison with a control group of 5 ASD adults with low fonctionning was performed using ANCOVA. Results : After ten training sessions, the adults ASD with low fonctionning showed a significant improvement in their Affect Recognition (NEPSY II) scores compared to the control group. Conclusion : The overall results highlight the relevance of a facial emotion recognition training program for adults ASD with low fonctionning. The simple and accessible methodology of the FERT© could allow families and institutions accompanying people ASD with mild and moderate HI to re-educate facial emotion recognition. The lack of literature on facial emotion rehabilitation for this population requires future research in this area.
... age differences emerged across all variables with young adults outperforming older adults (all ps < .01). The differences are generally consistent with past work in theory of mind and cognitive functioning (e.g., Demichelis et al., 2020;Moran, 2013; c.f. Kynast et al., 2020;Lee et al., 2021 for RMET), although there is mixed evidence regarding the magnitude of age differences in affective theory of mind (e.g., Bottiroli et al., 2016;Charlton et al., 2009;Duval et al., 2011). Revisiting the correlations in Table 2, the cognitive and social cognitive variables may appear to be moderately correlated due to the relatively strong age effects across nearly all variables. ...
Poor face-name recall has been associated with age-related impairments in cognitive functioning, namely declines in episodic memory and executive control. However, the role of social cognitive function – the ability to remember, process, and store information about others – has been largely overlooked in this work. Extensive work has shown that social and nonsocial cognitive processes rely on unique, albeit overlapping, mechanisms. In the current study, we explored whether social cognitive functioning – specifically the ability to infer other people’s mental states (i.e., theory of mind) – facilitates better face-name learning. To do this, a sample of 289 older and young adults completed a face-name learning paradigm along with standard assessments of episodic memory and executive control alongside two theory of mind measures, one static and one dynamic. In addition to expected age differences, several key effects emerged. Age-related differences in recognition were explained by episodic memory, not social cognition. However, age effects in recall were explained by both episodic memory and social cognition, specifically affective theory of mind in the dynamic task. Altogether, we contend that face-name recall can be supported by social cognitive functioning, namely understanding emotions. While acknowledging the influence of task characteristics (i.e., lures, target ages), we interpret these findings in light of existing accounts of age differences in face-name associative memory.
... To investigate how many participants developed a cognitive deterioration in the long-term, we re-invited participants and reassessed their cognitive performance. Because we laid the focus on dementia and its risk states, we applied well established dementia screening and social cognition tests for the follow-up study, i.e., the Consortium to Establish a Registry for Alzheimer's Disease (CERAD Plus battery) 46 , complemented by the Reading the Mind in the Eyes test (RMET) 47,48 . Herewith, we covered the cognitive domains suggested in the DSM-5 37 , i.e., attention (trail making test A 27,28 ), executive function (trail making test B divided by version A 27,28 ), learning and memory (word list immediate/ delayed recall, recognition, and figures delayed recall), language (phonemic and verbal/semantic fluency, Boston naming test 49 ), perceptual motor (figures copy) and social cognition (RMET) 47,48 . ...
... Because we laid the focus on dementia and its risk states, we applied well established dementia screening and social cognition tests for the follow-up study, i.e., the Consortium to Establish a Registry for Alzheimer's Disease (CERAD Plus battery) 46 , complemented by the Reading the Mind in the Eyes test (RMET) 47,48 . Herewith, we covered the cognitive domains suggested in the DSM-5 37 , i.e., attention (trail making test A 27,28 ), executive function (trail making test B divided by version A 27,28 ), learning and memory (word list immediate/ delayed recall, recognition, and figures delayed recall), language (phonemic and verbal/semantic fluency, Boston naming test 49 ), perceptual motor (figures copy) and social cognition (RMET) 47,48 . Individual raw values were transformed into age-, sex-(RMET) and additionally education-(CERAD Plus battery)-matched normalized values and mean averages were calculated for all cognitive domains as already described before. ...
Aging increases the risk to develop Alzheimer’s disease. Cardiovascular diseases might accelerate this process. Our study aimed at investigating the impact of heart failure on brain connectivity using functional magnetic resonance imaging at resting state. Here we show brain connectivity alterations related to heart failure and cognitive performance. Heart failure decreases brain connectivity in the precuneus. Precuneus dysconnectivity was associated with biomarkers of heart failure—left ventricular ejection fraction and N-terminal prohormone of brain natriuretic peptide—and cognitive performance, predominantly executive function. Meta-analytical data-mining approaches—conducted in the BrainMap and Neurosynth databases—revealed that social and executive cognitive functions are mainly associated with those neural networks. Remarkably, the precuneus, as identified in our study in a mid-life cohort, represents one central functional hub affected by Alzheimer’s disease. A long-term follow-up investigation in our cohort after approximately nine years revealed more severe cognitive impairment in the group with heart failure than controls, where social cognition was the cognitive domain mainly affected, and not memory such as in Alzheimer’s disease. In sum, our results indicate consistently an association between heart failure and decoupling of the precuneus from other brain regions being associated with social and executive functions. Further longitudinal studies are warranted elucidating etiopathological mechanisms.
... Theory of Mind (ToM) also known as 'mentalizing' or 'mindreading' is a crucial socio-cognitive skill [1,2]. It enables the attribution of mental states to self and others and, herewith, adequate social communication and interaction. ...
... Recently, we investigated RMET accuracy in the context of age and cognition across the whole adult age-range (19-79 years) in a large population-based sample (N = 1603) [2]. In line with an aging-focused meta-analysis of social cognition [5], lower RMET accuracy was significantly associated with advanced age, indicating problems inferring mental state from gaze at older age. ...
... highly educated, young adults/undergraduates). Based on meta-analytic evidence [4] and our own studies [2,17], we expected a small on-average performance advantage in women relative to men. In line with this, RMET performance has been reported to be sensitive to hormone effects, including testosterone and estrogen [18][19][20][21]. ...
Social cognition includes understanding the mental states (thoughts, feelings, intentions, desires, and beliefs) of others – so-called ‘theory of mind’ or ‘mindreading’. Recent studies have shown an impact of age and sex. Here, we applied the ‘Reading the Mind in the Eyes’ Test (RMET) that measures the ability to identify mental states from the eye region of the face. RMET accuracy was measured and analyzed in a large population-based sample (N = 1603) across the whole adult age-range from 19 to 79 years with effect size analyses (Hedges' g). Overall test performance was lower in older than younger women and men, whereas differences between women and men were almost negligible across the whole cohort. In a further analysis focusing on age-specific sex differences, RMET accuracy was higher for women below 45 years compared to men. This sex effect nearly vanished in older people above 45 years of age. Results were verified in a sub-cohort after excluding participants with neurological and psychiatric conditions, and with another cut-off, i.e. 50 years of age. In conclusion, results suggest that mindreading declines with age. Overall sex effects were small and results suggest that age-related hormonal and social factors may impact mental state perception. Future mega-analyses and longitudinal studies including hormonal and social measures are needed to validate the interaction between RMET performance, aging and sex.
... Moreover, preserved ToM ability found in verbal modality tasks might result from greater knowledge about social relationships, and thus from an improved crystallized intelligence (for a systematic review, see [56]). In line with previous studies [31,57], our results demonstrate that, from the age of 60 years old, the ability to decode emotion from facial cues (eyes) worsens, suggesting that emotion recognition processing changes from young to old adult age, and would seem to be associated with different patterns of neural activation. Indeed, an fMRI study [23] revealed that young and older adults during the RMET showed a common activation of the right inferior frontal gyrus (IFG), a region associated with the visual memory encoding of faces (e.g., [33]) and a different activation in the left IFG and the anterior cingulate cortex. ...
Background:
Theory of mind (ToM) is a fundamental aspect of social cognition. Previous studies on age-related changes in mentalizing processes have provided conflicting results. This study aims to investigate the age-related changes in the cognitive and affective components of ToM throughout adulthood.
Methods:
Two hundred and thirty-eight healthy participants divided into five age groups (18-40 years old; 41-50 years old; 51-60 years old; 61-70 years; 71-80 years old) underwent tasks assessing the cognitive (ToM Picture Sequencing Task, TMPS, and the Advanced Test of ToM, ATT) and affective (Reading the Mind in the Eyes Task, RMET, and the Emotion Attribution Task, EAT) components of ToM, in both verbal and nonverbal modality.
Results:
Regarding affective ToM, both the youngest- and middle-old adult groups (61 to 80 years) performed worse than the young and youngest-middle adult groups (18 to 50 years) in the RMET, but no significant differences were found in the EAT. Regarding cognitive ToM, the middle-old adult group (71 to 80 years) performed worse than the young adult group (18 to 40 years) only in the TMPS, but no significant differences were found in the ATT.
Conclusion:
Rather than a general decline in ToM, our results provide evidence regarding selective changes in ToM in older adults, further confirming the dissociation of cognitive and affective ToM.
... SD = 4.21) was low relative to scores reported for healthy adults in the literature (range: 26-28) ( Baron-Cohen et al., 2001;Pardini et al., 2013; Peñuelas-Calvo, Sareen, Sevilla-Llewellyn-Jones, & Fernández-Berrocal, 2019)}. Given the age of the sample in this study (72-76 years), the findings are consistent with emerging evidence of age-related decline in RMET performance (Kynast et al., 2020), tests of emotional intelligence (Cabello, Navarro, Latorre, & Fernández-Berrocal, 2014), empathy (Beadle & de la Vega, 2019), and other tests of ToM (Baksh, Abrahams, Auyeung, & MacPherson, 2018;Henry et al., 2013). For example, one study has demonstrated significant age-related decline of around .3 standard deviations in RMET performance in a population-based sample of adults aged 19 to 79 years without neurological impairment (Kynast et al., 2020). ...
... Given the age of the sample in this study (72-76 years), the findings are consistent with emerging evidence of age-related decline in RMET performance (Kynast et al., 2020), tests of emotional intelligence (Cabello, Navarro, Latorre, & Fernández-Berrocal, 2014), empathy (Beadle & de la Vega, 2019), and other tests of ToM (Baksh, Abrahams, Auyeung, & MacPherson, 2018;Henry et al., 2013). For example, one study has demonstrated significant age-related decline of around .3 standard deviations in RMET performance in a population-based sample of adults aged 19 to 79 years without neurological impairment (Kynast et al., 2020). The predicted RMET performance Social cognition in MCI and dementia . ...
Objective
Social cognition is impaired in mild cognitive impairment (MCI) and dementia. However, its relationship to social functioning and perceived social support has yet to be explored. Here, we examine how theory of mind (ToM) relates to social functioning in MCI and dementia.
Methods
Older adults (cognitively normal = 1272; MCI = 132; dementia = 23) from the PATH Through Life project, a longitudinal, population-based study, were assessed on the Reading the Mind in the Eyes Test (RMET), measures of social functioning, and social well-being. The associations between RMET performance, social functioning, and cognitive status were analysed using generalised linear models, adjusting for demographic variables.
Results
Participants with MCI ( b =−.52, 95% CI [−.70, −.33]) and dementia ( b =−.78, 95% CI [−1.22, −.34]) showed poorer RMET performance than cognitively normal participants. Participants with MCI and dementia reported reduced social network size ( b =−.21, 95% CI [−.40, −.02] and b =−.90, 95% CI [−1.38, −.42], respectively) and participants with dementia reported increased loneliness ( b = .36, 95% CI [.06, .67]). In dementia, poorer RMET performance was associated with increased loneliness ( b =−.07, 95% CI [−.14, −.00]) and a trend for negative interactions with partners ( b =−.37, 95% CI [−.74, .00]), but no significant associations were found in MCI.
Conclusions
MCI and dementia were associated with poor self-reported social function. ToM deficits were related to poor social function in dementia but not MCI. Findings highlight the importance of interventions to address social cognitive deficits in persons with dementia and education of support networks to facilitate positive interactions and social well-being.
... As such, our results are in line with single studies [56,57] but do not replicate the results of a meta-analysis [17]. It has been shown before that the performance in this task declines with age [58] which might offer an explanation for the inconsistent findings between studies. ...
... Semantic fluency explained 23% of variance in this task in the OC and 14% in the DAT group, which is in accordance with a recent work showing association of affective ToM with verbal abilities [33,58]. The association did not reach significance in the aMCI group. ...
Background:
Social cognition (SC) is a core criterion for neurocognitive disorders. However, findings in patients with amnestic mild cognitive impairment (aMCI) and dementia of the Alzheimer type (DAT) are inconsistent.
Objective:
We report assessments of emotion recognition (ER), affective and cognitive theory of mind (ToM) in young (YC) and older controls (OC) compared to aMCI and DAT.
Methods:
28 aMCI, 30 DAT, 30 YC, and 29 OC received tests of SC and a comprehensive neuropsychological assessment. Analysis of covariance was used to determine group differences. Multiple regression models were applied to identify predictors for each SC task.
Results:
In controls, OC performed worse in ER and both ToM tasks compared to YC except for one subtest. No significant differences were found between OC and patients concerning ER and affective ToM. In cognitive ToM, differences between OC and patients depended on content and cognitive load with significant impairment in DAT compared to OC. A cognitive composite score predicted SC in OC, but not in patients. Associations of SC with single cognitive domains were found in all groups with language and complex attention as best predictors. Not all variance of SC performance was explained by variance in cognitive domains.
Conclusion:
Lower performance on SC tasks in OC versus YC was confirmed, although not all tasks were equally affected. With progressive cognitive impairment, cognitive ToM is more impaired than ER or affective ToM. SC seems to be at least partly independent of other cognitive domains, justifying its inclusion in batteries for dementia diagnostic.
