The Neural Basis of Social Cognition: Using EEG Measurse to Explore False-Belief Processing Across the Lifespan.

Theory of Mind (ToM), or social cognition, refers to the ability to understand, compute, and attribute mental states. Previous research has shown that even in healthy ageing, declines in social-cognitive abilities are often seen. The research presented here recruited younger (18-35 years-old) and older (60+ years-old) healthy adults to explore the neural basis of changes in social-cognition across the lifespan. Using EEG measures, we investigated the neural responses of older and younger participants when listening to stories involving true- or false-belief scenarios. In the stories, a character was described as having a true- or false-belief about an object’s location, before acting in a manner consistent or inconsistent with this ascribed belief-state. Participants also completed questionnaires (including the Autism Quotient and Empathy Quotient) to assess self-report measures of general social abilities, and how these may predict individual differences in belief-state processing. Results revealed differences in how true- and false-belief states were processed, with a significant role of belief-consistent versus belief-inconsistent outcomes; when the story character possessed a false-belief, belief-consistent outcomes led to a more negative-going N400 component than belief-inconsistent outcomes. These distinctions were more pronounced in older adults than in younger adults, suggesting a difference in how belief-states are processed.