The SOCIAL study aims to examine the social consequences of Alzheimer's dementia.
Social Cognition and Functioning in Alzheimer's Dementia (SOCIAL) study
Impaired social functioning is a core feature of dementia and declines progressively through the disease course, but we do not currently understand the specific causes of this decline and have no effective treatments for social functioning. Social cognitive impairment, particularly impaired theory of mind (meaning inability to understand that other people have other thoughts and conceptualise what those thoughts might be), is a likely major cause of this decline and, if this is established, it could be a target for future interventions which aim to maintain social cognition. We therefore aim to test whether theory of mind impairment, or those in other areas of social cognition, are associated with decline in social functioning in people with mild Alzheimer’s dementia.