Objective:A large literature now shows that Alzheimer’s disease (AD) disrupts a number of social cognitive abilities, including social perceptual function and theory of mind (ToM). However, less well understood is how the specific subcomponents of ToM as well as both the broader and specific subcomponents of empathic processing are affected.Method:The current study provides the first meta-analytic review of AD that focuses on both empathy and ToM as broad constructs, as well as their overlapping (cognitive empathy and affective ToM) and distinct (affective empathy and cognitive ToM) subcomponents.Results:Aggregated across 31 studies, the results revealed that, relative to controls, AD is associated with large-sized deficits in both cognitive ToM (g = 1.09) and affective ToM/cognitive empathy (g = 0.76). However, no statistical differences were found between the AD participants and controls on affective empathic abilities (g = 0.36).Conclusions:These data point to a potentially important disconnect between core aspects of social cognitive processing in people with AD. The practical and theoretical implications of these findings are discussed.

中文翻译：

---

阿尔茨海默病中的同理心和心理理论：一项荟萃分析

目的：现在大量文献表明，阿尔茨海默病 (AD) 会破坏许多社会认知能力，包括社会知觉功能和心智理论 (ToM)。然而，不太了解的是 ToM 的特定子组件以及移情处理的更广泛和特定的子组件如何受到影响。方法：目前的研究提供了 AD 的第一个元分析审查，重点关注移情和 ToM 作为广泛结构，以及它们的重叠（认知移情和情感 ToM）和不同的（情感移情和认知 ToM）子组件。结果：汇总 31 项研究，结果显示，相对于对照组，AD 与既认知 ToM (G= 1.09) 和情感 ToM/认知移情 (G= 0.76)。然而，在 AD 参与者和控制情感移情能力之间没有发现统计学差异（G= 0.36). 结论：这些数据表明 AD 患者社会认知处理的核心方面之间可能存在重要的脱节。讨论了这些发现的实践和理论意义。