Colleen Hughes: Behavioral and neural evidence for age differences in theory of mind

Colleen Hughes

Doctoral Candidate, Indiana University

Abstract: Accurately perceiving others’ mental states (i.e., theory of mind) facilitates everyday social interactions. Yet, despite that older adults increasingly value social interactions, they also demonstrate deficits in mental state understanding. In this talk, I will discuss behavioral and neuroimaging evidence that older adults’ relatively impaired theory of mind can be attributed to age differences in brain function while actively engaged in the behavior but also during a task-free (i.e., baseline) state. While brain function during both states is weaker among older versus younger adults, the magnitude of this effect is larger during task states. Preliminary evidence suggests that these state-dependent age differences in brain function reflect different ways in which older and younger adults’ theory of mind performance is facilitated. Taken together, these findings may provide greater insight into the mechanisms by which aging may lead to social and cognitive declines.

Bio: Colleen Hughes is a doctoral candidate at Indiana University in Bloomington under the mentorship of Dr. Anne Krendl. Colleen’s research program spans social cognition, clinical psychology, neuroscience, and development. Previously, she completed her bachelor’s degree in Psychology at St. Mary’s College of Maryland and a post-baccalaureate research position at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign with Dr. Dolores Albarracin.