Krendl Anne C, Hamilton Lucas J, Apostolova Liana G, Perry Brea L
Department of Psychological and Brain Sciences, Indiana University, Bloomington, Indiana, USA.
Department of Psychology, Augustana University, Sioux Falls, South Dakota, USA.
J Gerontol B Psychol Sci Soc Sci. 2025 Feb 10;80(3). doi: 10.1093/geronb/gbae209.
Social connectedness is a modifiable lifestyle factor that delays age-related cognitive decline. Using cross-sectional, longitudinal, and experimental approaches, we examined whether theory of mind-inferring what others think or feel-is a potential mechanism underlying this relationship.
In Study 1, 305 community-dwelling older adults participating in two different, but related, studies completed comprehensive measures of general cognition, theory of mind, and personal social networks. We examined whether theory of mind mediated the relationship between older adults' social connectedness and cognition. One hundred and ten of those participants completed follow-up social network interviews and cognitive assessments about 1.5 years later to determine whether baseline social connectedness and theory of mind predicted cognitive change. In Study 2, 55 other older adults completed a procedural discourse task targeting a close and distant network member. We predicted that higher theory of mind would be reflected through providing more details to distant, versus close, others, especially among older adults with larger, less interconnected, personal social networks.
Results revealed that theory of mind accounted for 32% of the relationship between social connectedness and overall cognition, even when covarying age, gender, education, and a control task. The effects were particularly robust for episodic memory and language. Longitudinal analyses replicated this pattern. In Study 2, older adults with larger, less dense social networks provided more details to distant versus very close network members.
Together, these results suggest that theory of mind may provide the mechanism through which social connectedness confers cognitive resilience associated with slower cognitive decline.
社会联系是一种可改变的生活方式因素，可延缓与年龄相关的认知衰退。我们采用横断面研究、纵向研究和实验研究方法，检验心理理论——推断他人想法或感受——是否是这种关系背后的潜在机制。
在研究1中，305名参与两项不同但相关研究的社区老年人完成了一般认知、心理理论和个人社交网络的综合测量。我们检验了心理理论是否介导了老年人社会联系与认知之间的关系。其中110名参与者在大约1.5年后完成了后续社交网络访谈和认知评估，以确定基线社会联系和心理理论是否能预测认知变化。在研究2中，另外55名老年人完成了一项针对亲密和疏远网络成员的程序性话语任务。我们预测，更高的心理理论会通过向疏远而非亲密的他人提供更多细节体现出来，尤其是在个人社交网络较大且联系较少的老年人中。
结果显示，即使对年龄、性别、教育程度和一项控制任务进行协变量分析，心理理论仍占社会联系与整体认知之间关系的32%。这种效应在情景记忆和语言方面尤为显著。纵向分析重现了这一模式。在研究2中，社交网络较大且密度较低的老年人向疏远的网络成员而非非常亲密的网络成员提供了更多细节。
总之，这些结果表明，心理理论可能提供了一种机制，通过这种机制，社会联系赋予了与较慢认知衰退相关的认知恢复力。
