Executive Functions do not Underlie Performance on the Edinburgh Social Cognition Test (ESCoT) in Healthy Younger and Older Adults

• Published in: Journal of the International Neuropsychological Society Vol. 26; no. 5; pp. 527 - 538
• Main Authors: Baksh, R Asaad, Bugeja, Tereża, MacPherson, Sarah E
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: England Cambridge University Press 01.05.2020
• Subjects: Age; Aging; Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis; Cognition; Cognition & reasoning; Cognitive ability; Executive function; Norms; Older people; Social interactions; Socialization; Executive functions; Understanding of social norms; Edinburgh Social Cognition Test (ESCoT); Theory of Mind; Ageing
• ISSN: 1355-6177; 1469-7661
• DOI: 10.1017/S1355617719001450

Current measures of social cognition have shown inconsistent findings regarding the effects of executive function (EF) abilities on social cognitive performance in older adults. The psychometric properties of the different social cognition tests may underlie the disproportional overlap with EF abilities. Our aim was to examine the relationship between social cognition and EF abilities using the Edinburgh Social Cognition Test (ESCoT; Baksh, R.A., Abrahams, S., Auyeung, B., & MacPherson, S.E. (2018). The Edinburgh Social Cognition Test (ESCoT): Examining the effects of age on a new measure of theory of mind and social norm understanding. PloS One, 13(4), e0195818.), a test assessing four different aspects of social cognition: cognitive theory of mind (ToM), affective ToM, interpersonal understanding of social norms, and intrapersonal understanding of social norms. We administered the ESCoT, EF measures of inhibition, set shifting, updating, and a measure of processing speed to 30 younger and 31 older adults. We also administered the Visual Perspective Taking task (VPT) as a ToM test thought to be reliant on EF abilities. Better performance on cognitive ToM was significantly associated with younger age and slower processing speed. Better performance on affective ToM and ESCoT total score was associated with being younger and female. Better performance on interpersonal understanding of social norms was associated with being younger. EF abilities did not predict performance on any subtest of the ESCoT. In contrast, on the VPT, the relationship between age group and performance was fully or partially mediated by processing speed and updating. These findings show that the ESCoT is a valuable measure of different aspects of social cognition and, unlike many established tests of social cognition, performance is not predicted by EF abilities.