# Dynamic approaches to understanding social cognitive aging: A social network neuroscience approach

> **NIH NIH R01** · TRUSTEES OF INDIANA UNIVERSITY · 2024 · $582,999

## Abstract

PROJECT SUMMARY
Social connectedness is critical for promoting healthy aging, including delaying the onset
of Alzheimer’s disease (AD). Developing and maintaining social relationships relies on
social cognitive function – the process by which people understand, store, and apply
information about others. However, healthy aging and AD are associated with declines in
social cognitive function. Identifying the mechanisms underlying this decline is essential
for ultimately improving the clinical course of AD. Neuroscience is uniquely suited to
identify these mechanisms because the brain regions underlying social behavior have
been well-characterized. However, the limited work in this domain has fallen short in
elucidating how brain activation relates to older adults’ social cognitive deficits. One
reason for this might be its reliance on relatively narrow measures of brain activation and
impoverished stimuli, which neglect the dynamic nature of brain function and of social
interactions. The current proposal addresses these gaps by applying cutting-edge
methods from the field of network neuroscience to social cognitive aging to examine how
age-related changes in brain networks – collections of brain regions that communicate
disproportionately more with each other – affect social cognitive function. Using this
novel social network neuroscience framework will ultimately transform our understanding
of the mechanisms by which healthy aging and AD disrupt social cognitive function. In
Aim 1, we compare traditional approaches of focusing on activation in specific brain
regions to a brain networks approach in order to determine which better relates to social
cognitive deficits (e.g., theory of mind; the ability to infer others’ mental states). Aim 2
explores whether older adults’ less stable brain networks predict their theory of mind
deficits. An exploratory goal of this aim is to determine whether dynamic (more
naturalistic) stimuli provide greater insight into age-related social cognitive deficits than
traditional, static stimuli. Finally, Aim 3 challenges current assumptions that older adults’
social cognitive deficits are limited to how their brains engage during tasks. Specifically,
we examine whether older adults’ baseline brain network structure (during resting state)
predicts their subsequent task performance, and extend this question to an AD sample.
The proposed study combines cutting-edge network neuroscience methods with social
cognitive aging to advance our understanding of healthy aging and AD. Ultimately, this
project will help identify novel targets for intervention to slow the progression of AD.

## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 10845640
- **Project number:** 5R01AG075044-03
- **Recipient organization:** TRUSTEES OF INDIANA UNIVERSITY
- **Principal Investigator:** Richard F Betzel
- **Activity code:** R01 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** NIH
- **Fiscal year:** 2024
- **Award amount:** $582,999
- **Award type:** 5
- **Project period:** 2022-08-15 → 2027-05-31

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/10845640

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 10845640, Dynamic approaches to understanding social cognitive aging: A social network neuroscience approach (5R01AG075044-03). Retrieved via AI Analytics 2026-05-24 from https://api.ai-analytics.org/grant/nih/10845640. Licensed CC0.

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