Face Masks Protect From Infection but May Impair Social Cognition in Older Adults and People With Dementia
The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic will have a high impact on older adults and people with Alzheimer's disease and other dementias. Social cognition enables the understanding of another individual's feelings, intentions, desires and mental states, which is particularly import...
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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Frontiers Media S.A.
2021-08-01
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| Series: | Frontiers in Psychology |
| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fpsyg.2021.640548/full |
| _version_ | 1819154950446383104 |
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| author | Matthias L. Schroeter Jana Kynast Arno Villringer Simon Baron-Cohen |
| author_facet | Matthias L. Schroeter Jana Kynast Arno Villringer Simon Baron-Cohen |
| author_sort | Matthias L. Schroeter |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic will have a high impact on older adults and people with Alzheimer's disease and other dementias. Social cognition enables the understanding of another individual's feelings, intentions, desires and mental states, which is particularly important during the COVID-19 pandemic. To prevent further spread of the disease face masks have been recommended. Although justified for prevention of this potentially devastating disease, they partly cover the face and hamper emotion recognition and probably mindreading. As social cognition is already affected by aging and dementia, strategies must be developed to cope with these profound changes of communication. Face masking even could accelerate cognitive decline in the long run. Further studies are of uppermost importance to address face masks' impact on social cognition in aging and dementia, for instance by longitudinally investigating decline before and in the pandemic, and to design compensatory strategies. These issues are also relevant for face masking in general, such as in medical surroundings—beyond the COVID-19 pandemic. |
| first_indexed | 2024-12-22T15:29:13Z |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj.art-b46a31afc1b944a484d412aa2444c72b |
| institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
| issn | 1664-1078 |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-12-22T15:29:13Z |
| publishDate | 2021-08-01 |
| publisher | Frontiers Media S.A. |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Frontiers in Psychology |
| spelling | doaj.art-b46a31afc1b944a484d412aa2444c72b2022-12-21T18:21:25ZengFrontiers Media S.A.Frontiers in Psychology1664-10782021-08-011210.3389/fpsyg.2021.640548640548Face Masks Protect From Infection but May Impair Social Cognition in Older Adults and People With DementiaMatthias L. Schroeter0Jana Kynast1Arno Villringer2Simon Baron-Cohen3Department of Neurology, Max Planck Institute for Human Cognitive and Brain Sciences, University Hospital Leipzig, Clinic for Cognitive Neurology, Leipzig, GermanyDepartment of Neurology, Max Planck Institute for Human Cognitive and Brain Sciences, University Hospital Leipzig, Clinic for Cognitive Neurology, Leipzig, GermanyDepartment of Neurology, Max Planck Institute for Human Cognitive and Brain Sciences, University Hospital Leipzig, Clinic for Cognitive Neurology, Leipzig, GermanyDepartment of Psychiatry, Autism Research Centre, University of Cambridge, Cambridge, United KingdomThe coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic will have a high impact on older adults and people with Alzheimer's disease and other dementias. Social cognition enables the understanding of another individual's feelings, intentions, desires and mental states, which is particularly important during the COVID-19 pandemic. To prevent further spread of the disease face masks have been recommended. Although justified for prevention of this potentially devastating disease, they partly cover the face and hamper emotion recognition and probably mindreading. As social cognition is already affected by aging and dementia, strategies must be developed to cope with these profound changes of communication. Face masking even could accelerate cognitive decline in the long run. Further studies are of uppermost importance to address face masks' impact on social cognition in aging and dementia, for instance by longitudinally investigating decline before and in the pandemic, and to design compensatory strategies. These issues are also relevant for face masking in general, such as in medical surroundings—beyond the COVID-19 pandemic.https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fpsyg.2021.640548/fullcoronavirusCOVIDdementiaemotion recognitionface maskingmindreading |
| spellingShingle | Matthias L. Schroeter Jana Kynast Arno Villringer Simon Baron-Cohen Face Masks Protect From Infection but May Impair Social Cognition in Older Adults and People With Dementia Frontiers in Psychology coronavirus COVID dementia emotion recognition face masking mindreading |
| title | Face Masks Protect From Infection but May Impair Social Cognition in Older Adults and People With Dementia |
| title_full | Face Masks Protect From Infection but May Impair Social Cognition in Older Adults and People With Dementia |
| title_fullStr | Face Masks Protect From Infection but May Impair Social Cognition in Older Adults and People With Dementia |
| title_full_unstemmed | Face Masks Protect From Infection but May Impair Social Cognition in Older Adults and People With Dementia |
| title_short | Face Masks Protect From Infection but May Impair Social Cognition in Older Adults and People With Dementia |
| title_sort | face masks protect from infection but may impair social cognition in older adults and people with dementia |
| topic | coronavirus COVID dementia emotion recognition face masking mindreading |
| url | https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fpsyg.2021.640548/full |
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