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Mindreading From the Eyes Declines With Aging – Evidence From 1,603 Subjects

Published version
Peer-reviewed

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Authors

Kynast, Jana 
Quinque, Eva Maria 
Polyakova, Maryna 
Luck, Tobias 
Riedel-Heller, Steffi G. 

Abstract

Social cognition, in particular mindreading, enables the understanding of another individual’s feelings, intentions, desires, and mental states. The Reading the Mind in the Eyes Test (RMET) captures the ability to identify mental states from gaze. We investigated RMET accuracy in the context of age and cognition across the whole adult age-range (19–79 years) in a very large population-based sample (N = 1,603) with linear regression models accounting for cognitive abilities, neurological diseases, and psychiatric disorders. Higher age predicted lower RMET performance in women and men, suggesting difficulties to infer mental states from gaze at older age. Effects remained stable when taking other cognitive abilities and psychiatric disorders or neurological diseases into account. Our results show that RMET performance as a measure of social cognition declines with increasing age.

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Keywords

Neuroscience, aging, Reading the Mind in the Eyes Test, social cognition, women, men

Journal Title

Frontiers in Aging Neuroscience

Conference Name

Journal ISSN

1663-4365

Volume Title

12

Publisher

Frontiers Media S.A.