The Relationships between Theory of Mind,Executive Functions and Social Intelligences in Normal Aging
Date Issued
2007
Date
2007
Author(s)
Yeh, Zai-Ting
DOI
zh-TW
Abstract
Theory of Mind (ToM) refers to the ability to represent mental states, such as beliefs, and intentions, and is distinct from the ability to represent ‘real’ states of affairs. It enables us to make attribution and to reason about mental states and, in doing so, to understand and predict the behavior of other people. Researches have suggested that Theory of Mind may represent a dissociable, modular brain system that is related to, but separable, from other brain functions including memory, language and executive functions. Studies of neuroimaging provide further evidence that the ventromedial regions of the prefrontal cortex are associated with ToM. Although the majority of research in ToM focused on young children or individuals with autism, only some recent studies have investigated ToM throughout the lifespan, especially in normal aging. However, the results have been controversial. The specific aims of the present study were to: (1) examine whether healthy elderly people are impaired on those tasks including the well-established ToM ones, (2) explore the relationship between ToM and executive functions in elder people, and (3) examine whether social intelligence is correlated more with ToM than with executive functions. Thirty-eight young-old (mean age = 70.55), thirty-two old-old (mean age = 80.13) and thirty-eight young (mean age = 22.77) age groups, matched on education, memory function and MMSE scores, and each subject received well-established ToM tasks, executive function tests and social intelligence scales. The results revealed that there were no age effects on ToM tasks even after taking account of measures of social-economic status and executive function. However, executive functions were impaired both in the young-old and old-old groups when compared with the young group. ToM performances, but not executive function, were strongly correlated with social intelligence among elderly individuals. Base on the present results, it is thus suggested that ToM might play an important role in social intelligence.
Subjects
心智理論
正常老年人
執行功能
Theory of mind
normal aging
executive functions
social intelligences.
Type
other