Bottiroli Sara, Cavallini Elena, Ceccato Irene, Vecchi Tomaso, Lecce Serena
C. Mondino National Neurological Institute, Pavia, Italy.
Department of Brain and Behavioral Sciences, University of Pavia, Italy.
Arch Gerontol Geriatr. 2016 Jan-Feb;62:152-62. doi: 10.1016/j.archger.2015.09.009. Epub 2015 Sep 26.
Theory of Mind (ToM) is a complex human ability that allows people to make inferences on others' mental states such as beliefs, emotions and desires. Previous studies on ToM in normal aging have provided heterogeneous findings. In the present study we examined whether a mixed calculation of different aspects of ToM may have contributed to these conflicting results. We had two aims. First, we explored the age-related changes in the performance of cognitive vs. affective ToM. Second, we investigated the extent to which the effect of aging on cognitive vs. affective ToM is mediated by age-related differences in executive functions.
To address these issues three age groups (young, young-old, and old-old adults) were compared on cognitive and affective ToM using the faux pas test. In addition, participants were tested using a battery of executive function tasks tapping on inhibition, working memory updating, and word fluency.
The analyses indicated that young adults outperform both young-old and old-old adults on cognitive ToM but not on affective ToM. Correlations showed that, whereas cognitive ToM was significantly associated with age, working memory updating, and inhibition, affective ToM was not. Finally, analyses revealed that individual differences in working memory updating (but not inhibition) mediated the effect of age on cognitive ToM.
Our findings support the view of selective age-related differences on cognitive, but not affective, ToM in normal aging. The distinction between the two ToM components is further supported by a dissociable pattern of correlations with executive functions.
心理理论（ToM）是一种复杂的人类能力，它使人们能够对他人的心理状态进行推断，如信念、情感和欲望。以往关于正常衰老过程中心理理论的研究结果并不一致。在本研究中，我们探讨了心理理论不同方面的混合计算是否可能导致了这些相互矛盾的结果。我们有两个目标。第一，我们探究了认知性与情感性心理理论表现的年龄相关变化。第二，我们研究了衰老对认知性与情感性心理理论的影响在多大程度上是由执行功能的年龄相关差异介导的。
为了解决这些问题，我们使用失言测试对三个年龄组（年轻人、年轻老年人和老年人）的认知性和情感性心理理论进行了比较。此外，我们还使用了一系列执行功能任务对参与者进行测试，这些任务涉及抑制、工作记忆更新和词汇流畅性。
分析表明，年轻人在认知性心理理论方面的表现优于年轻老年人和老年人，但在情感性心理理论方面并非如此。相关性分析表明，认知性心理理论与年龄、工作记忆更新和抑制显著相关，而情感性心理理论则不然。最后，分析表明工作记忆更新（而非抑制）的个体差异介导了年龄对认知性心理理论的影响。
我们的研究结果支持了正常衰老过程中认知性心理理论存在选择性年龄相关差异，而情感性心理理论不存在这种差异的观点。与执行功能的分离相关模式进一步支持了两种心理理论成分之间的区别。
