Batzikosta Areti, Moraitou Despina, Steiropoulos Paschalis, Papantoniou Georgia, Kougioumtzis Georgios A, Katsouri Ioanna-Giannoula, Sofologi Maria, Tsolaki Magda
Laboratory of Psychology, Department of Cognition, Brain and Behavior, School of Psychology, Faculty of Philosophy, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki (AUTh), 54124 Thessaloniki, Greece.
Laboratory of Neurodegenerative Diseases, Center of Interdisciplinary Research and Innovation (CIRI-AUTH), Balcan Center, Buildings A & B, 57001 Thessaloniki, Greece.
Brain Sci. 2025 Jan 10;15(1):57. doi: 10.3390/brainsci15010057.
The study examined the relationships between specific Theory-of-Mind (ToM) dimensions, cognitive planning, and sleep duration in aging adults. The sample included 179 participants, comprising 46 cognitively healthy individuals, 75 diagnosed with amnestic Mild Cognitive Impairment (aMCI), and 58 with non-amnestic (naMCI). The mean age of the participants was 70.23 years (SD = 4.74), with a mean educational attainment of 12.35 years (SD = 3.22) and gender distribution of 53 men and 126 women. ToM assessment included tasks measuring the understanding and interpretation of non-literal speech, proverbs and metaphors, as well as an emotion-recognition test. For cognitive planning, a Tower Test was utilized. Sleep duration was measured using actigraphy. We identified significant differences in various ToM tasks' performance between the groups, particularly in non-literal speech tasks and third-order ToM stories. The HC group consistently outperformed both MCI groups in these tasks, with aMCI showing higher performance than naMCI. Mediation analysis applied to examine potential direct and indirect effects of sleep duration on ToM tasks indicated that total sleep time had significant indirect effects through cognitive planning-mainly as rule violation total score-on specific ToM aspects. Hence, besides the effects of MCI pathologies and especially of naMCI, sleep duration seems also to be associated with ToM performance in aging via specific executive functioning decrements. The findings underscore the social implications of ToM deficits due to MCI and/or sleep duration decrease, particularly in naMCI older adults, as they can seriously impair their social interactions. Targeted interventions could improve emotional understanding, communication, and overall quality of life.
该研究考察了老年人特定心理理论（ToM）维度、认知规划与睡眠时间之间的关系。样本包括179名参与者，其中46名认知健康个体，75名被诊断为遗忘型轻度认知障碍（aMCI），58名非遗忘型（naMCI）。参与者的平均年龄为70.23岁（标准差 = 4.74），平均受教育年限为12.35年（标准差 = 3.22），性别分布为53名男性和126名女性。ToM评估包括测量对非字面言语、谚语和隐喻的理解与解释的任务，以及一项情绪识别测试。对于认知规划，使用了塔楼测试。睡眠时间通过活动记录仪进行测量。我们发现不同组在各种ToM任务表现上存在显著差异，特别是在非字面言语任务和三阶ToM故事中。健康对照组（HC）在这些任务中始终优于两个MCI组，aMCI组的表现高于naMCI组。用于检验睡眠时间对ToM任务潜在直接和间接影响的中介分析表明，总睡眠时间通过认知规划——主要作为规则违反总分——对特定ToM方面有显著间接影响。因此，除了MCI病理尤其是naMCI的影响外，睡眠时间似乎也通过特定的执行功能减退与老年人的ToM表现相关。研究结果强调了MCI和/或睡眠时间减少导致的ToM缺陷的社会影响，特别是在naMCI老年人中，因为它们会严重损害他们的社交互动。有针对性的干预措施可以改善情绪理解、沟通和整体生活质量。
