The study of social cognition has extended across the lifespan with a recent special focus on the impacts of aging on the social-cognitive brain. This review summarizes current knowledge on social perception, theory of mind, empathy, and social behavior from a social-cognitive neuroscience of aging perspective and identifies new directions for studying the aging social-cognitive brain. These new directions highlight the need for standardized operationalization and analysis of social-cognitive constructs; use of naturalistic paradigms to enhance ecological validity of social-cognitive measures; application of repeated assessments via single-N designs for robust delineation of social-cognitive processes in the aging brain; increased representation of vulnerable aging populations in social-cognitive brain research to enhance diversity, promote generalizability, and allow for cross-population comparisons.

中文翻译：

---

研究老龄化社会认知大脑的新方向

社会认知的研究已经扩展到整个生命周期，最近特别关注衰老对大脑社会认知的影响。这篇综述从老龄化社会认知神经科学的角度总结了当前关于社会感知、心理理论、同理心和社会行为的知识，并确定了研究老龄化社会认知大脑的新方向。这些新方向强调了对社会认知结构进行标准化操作和分析的必要性；使用自然主义范式来增强社会认知措施的生态有效性；通过单N设计进行重复评估，以稳健地描绘衰老大脑中的社会认知过程；增加社会认知大脑研究中弱势老龄人口的代表性，以增强多样性、促进普遍性并允许跨人群比较。