ArticleThe journals of gerontology. Series B, Psychological sciences and social sciences2023
Aging Is Associated With Multidirectional Changes in Social Cognition: Findings From an Adult Life-Span Sample Ranging From 18 to 101 Years.
Article in The journals of gerontology. Series B, Psychological sciences and social sciences, 2023. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 22 papers.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
22 citing papers in PubMed.
- Identifying the neural mechanisms associated with older adults' dynamic theory of mind judgments during a movie-watching task.Social neuroscience · 2026Article
- Individualized Mapping of Functional Brain Networks in Older Adulthood.bioRxiv : the preprint server for biology · 2026Article
- Cell-type-dependent decline of IGF1 and IGF1R in the prefrontal cortex contributes to age-related behavioral changes.Frontiers in aging neuroscience · 2026Article
- International consensus for the assessment of social cognition in neurocognitive disorders: framework definition and clinical recommendations of the SIGNATURE initiative.Alzheimer's research & therapy · 2025Article
- 'Early Life Adversity and Social Cognition in the General Adult Population: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis'.Journal of child & adolescent trauma · 2025Article
- Depression in older adults with epilepsy: Pathophysiology and management considerations.Epilepsy & behavior : E&B · 2025Review
- Prevalence of Frailty and Associated Sociodemographic, Biomedical, and Biochemical Factors Amongst Participants Residing in Limpopo Province, South Africa.Geriatrics (Basel, Switzerland) · 2025Article
- Disentangling the role of executive function and episodic memory in older adults' performance on dynamic theory of mind tasks.Neuropsychology, development, and cognition. Section B, Aging, neuropsychology and cognition · 2025Article
- Sex-specific behavioral changes in middle-aged mice.Scientific reports · 2025Article
- Association Between Joint Attention and Autism Traits in Young Adults: A Gaze-Contingent Eye-Tracking Study.Research in autism · 2025Article
- Functional reconfiguration between rest and movie watching relates to theory-of-mind performance among young and older adults.Cerebral cortex (New York, N.Y. : 1991) · 2025Article
- Resilience Through Social Connectedness and Cognition: Is Theory of Mind a Form of Enrichment for Older adults?The journals of gerontology. Series B, Psychological sciences and social sciences · 2025Article
- Increased arterial stiffness is associated with poorer social cognition in older age.Scientific reports · 2025Article
- Social and general cognition are uniquely associated with social connectedness in later life.Psychology and aging · 2024Article
- Phishing vulnerability compounded by older age, apolipoprotein E e4 genotype, and lower cognition.PNAS nexus · 2024Article
- New directions for studying the aging social-cognitive brain.Current opinion in psychology · 2024Review
- Brain gray matter morphometry relates to onset age of bilingualism and theory of mind in young and older adults.Scientific reports · 2024Article
- Cardiorespiratory Fitness and Muscular Strength Do Not Predict Social Cognitive Capacity in Older Age.The journals of gerontology. Series B, Psychological sciences and social sciences · 2023Article
- Article
- Social Frailty in Late Adulthood: Social Cognitive and Psychological Well-Being Correlates.The journals of gerontology. Series B, Psychological sciences and social sciences · 2023Article
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
8 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
objectivesNormal adult aging is associated with changes in social cognition. Although 4 social cognitive domains have been identified (social perception, theory of mind [ToM], affective empathy, and social behavior), no study has tested all 4 domains concurrently in a life-span sample, limiting understanding of the relative magnitude of age-related changes across domains. This study addresses this gap by providing the first assessment of all 4 social cognitive domains in an adult life-span sample.
methodsThree hundred and seventy-two participants ranging from 18 to 101 years of age took part in this study. Participants completed a testing battery that assessed social perception, ToM, affective empathy, and social behavior, as well as broader cognitive function and well-being.
resultsThe results showed that adult aging is associated with multidirectional changes in social cognitive abilities, with ToM and social perception showing nonlinear decline across much of the life-span, and affective empathy and social behavior showing improvement. Age remained a significant predictor of all 4 social cognitive domains, even after accounting for broader cognitive function. Weak associations emerged between some of the social cognitive abilities and and indices of broader well-being. DISCUSSION: These findings provide novel and important evidence that normative aging is associated with both gains and losses in social cognition that occur at distinct points of the adult life-span, and that are at least partially independent of general age-related cognitive decline.
Indexed as
Identifiers
What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.