A comprehensive assessment of social cognition from adolescence to adulthood

- Four components of social cognition were assessed in adolescents and adults.
- Adolescents had a lower performance than adults on a facial emotion recognition task.
- Adolescents scored lower on a self-reported measure of cognitive empathy.
- The observed age effects could not be explained by differences in executive functioning.
- Mentalizing abilities and social knowledge did not differ between groups.

While it is well accepted that the social brain undergoes prolonged development throughout the teenage years, behavioral evidence of this development from adolescence to adulthood are lacking. The current study thus investigated multiple aspects of social cognition in 30 adolescents of 12-17 years, 32 young adults of 18-21 years, and 27 adults of 22-30 years. The Integrated Social Cognition Battery (mentalizing, social knowledge, emotion recognition) and a self-reported empathy questionnaire were administered, along with non-social cognition tests (selective attention, working memory, executive functions). Adolescents' scores were significantly lower on the cognitive empathy subscale and emotion recognition task, even while taking into account other developing non-social cognitive functions. No difference was found regarding mentalizing, social knowledge, and other aspects of empathy. The results suggest a protracted development of some components of social cognition across adolescence, while others seem to be already developed. A nuanced understanding of social cognition development is discussed.