Project title: Determining patterns of cortical electrical activity in Dementing vs Non-dementing patients with non-specific white matter hyperintensity of vascular origin: A pilot study
White matter hyperintensities (WMH) are among the most prominent age-related findings on Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) that are presumed to be of vascular origin [1]. Many small vascular pathologies have been associated with WMH [2-4]. Consequent to this heterogenicity, WMHs are not diagnostically specific. However, a recent secondary analysis of Memory in Diabetes (MIND) sub study of the Action to Control Cardiovascular Risk in Diabetes Follow-on Study (ACCORDION) of 292 patients, showed an association between higher Systolic Blood Pressure (SBP), higher Low-Density Lipoprotein (LDL) and the progression of WMH in diabetic patients. These findings highlighted the significance of cardiovascular risk factors on the evolution WMH [5]. Despite the high prevalence of asymptomatic patients with seemingly innocent WMHs, several studies have shown cross-sectional association between WMH and cognitive decline [6-9]. This conflict has raised scientific curiosity around a “Resilient Brain” theory.
Neuropathological studies have found ischemic changes, plasma extravasation, rarefaction, and loss of parenchymal tissue structure in earlier phases of WMH and reduced myelin density in more advanced WMH pathologies [10-12]. Additionally, the concept of “myelin pallor” has also been suggested as the histological substrate of WMH [13]. Interestingly, other studies have shown that WMHs are particularly related to information-processing speed, executive and cognitive function [7,8], that are highly suggestive of cortical/gray matter involvement [14,15].
Several studies have used quantitative electroencephalogram (EEG) - a measuring reference for cortical electrical activity- to diagnose [16, 17], evaluate [18, 19] and differentiate [20] between subtypes of cognitive disorders including vascular dementia [21-24]. In particular, an EEG connectivity study showed disturbance of connectivity direction in patients with WMH-associated vascular dementia compared to non-demented controls [25]. However, to our knowledge no study has previously compared the EEG patterns of patients with WMH and vascular dementia with risk-factor matched non-symptomatic controls with similar amounts of WMH. In our proposed pilot study, we aim to determine patterns of cortical electrical activity in demented versus non-demented patients with non-specific WMH of presumed vascular origin.
Transition Words or Phrases used:
also, however, if, second, so, in particular
Attributes: Values AverageValues Percentages(Values/AverageValues)% => Comments
Performance on Part of Speech:
To be verbs : 8.0 19.6327345309 41% => More to be verbs wanted.
Auxiliary verbs: 0.0 12.9520958084 0% => OK
Conjunction : 7.0 11.1786427146 63% => OK
Relative clauses : 3.0 13.6137724551 22% => More relative clauses wanted.
Pronoun: 9.0 28.8173652695 31% => OK
Preposition: 51.0 55.5748502994 92% => OK
Nominalization: 13.0 16.3942115768 79% => OK
Performance on vocabulary words:
No of characters: 2057.0 2260.96107784 91% => OK
No of words: 324.0 441.139720559 73% => More content wanted.
Chars per words: 6.3487654321 5.12650576532 124% => OK
Fourth root words length: 4.24264068712 4.56307096286 93% => OK
Word Length SD: 3.58870549092 2.78398813304 129% => OK
Unique words: 202.0 204.123752495 99% => OK
Unique words percentage: 0.623456790123 0.468620217663 133% => OK
syllable_count: 620.1 705.55239521 88% => OK
avg_syllables_per_word: 1.9 1.59920159681 119% => OK
A sentence (or a clause, phrase) starts by:
Pronoun: 4.0 4.96107784431 81% => OK
Article: 3.0 8.76447105788 34% => OK
Subordination: 0.0 2.70958083832 0% => More adverbial clause wanted.
Conjunction: 1.0 1.67365269461 60% => OK
Preposition: 4.0 4.22255489022 95% => OK
Performance on sentences:
How many sentences: 14.0 19.7664670659 71% => Need more sentences. Double check the format of sentences, make sure there is a space between two sentences, or have enough periods. And also check the lengths of sentences, maybe they are too long.
Sentence length: 23.0 22.8473053892 101% => OK
Sentence length SD: 72.3468121239 57.8364921388 125% => OK
Chars per sentence: 146.928571429 119.503703932 123% => OK
Words per sentence: 23.1428571429 23.324526521 99% => OK
Discourse Markers: 3.14285714286 5.70786347227 55% => More transition words/phrases wanted.
Paragraphs: 3.0 5.15768463074 58% => More paragraphs wanted.
Language errors: 0.0 5.25449101796 0% => OK
Sentences with positive sentiment : 3.0 8.20758483034 37% => More positive sentences wanted.
Sentences with negative sentiment : 5.0 6.88822355289 73% => OK
Sentences with neutral sentiment: 6.0 4.67664670659 128% => OK
What are sentences with positive/Negative/neutral sentiment?
Coherence and Cohesion:
Essay topic to essay body coherence: 0.311662653959 0.218282227539 143% => OK
Sentence topic coherence: 0.103748626587 0.0743258471296 140% => OK
Sentence topic coherence SD: 0.143565305872 0.0701772020484 205% => The coherence between sentences is low.
Paragraph topic coherence: 0.192124022886 0.128457276422 150% => OK
Paragraph topic coherence SD: 0.165400203074 0.0628817314937 263% => More connections among paragraphs wanted.
Essay readability:
automated_readability_index: 20.0 14.3799401198 139% => OK
flesch_reading_ease: 22.75 48.3550499002 47% => Flesch_reading_ease is low.
smog_index: 13.0 7.1628742515 181% => OK
flesch_kincaid_grade: 15.8 12.197005988 130% => OK
coleman_liau_index: 19.85 12.5979740519 158% => OK
dale_chall_readability_score: 11.16 8.32208582834 134% => OK
difficult_words: 131.0 98.500998004 133% => OK
linsear_write_formula: 13.0 12.3882235529 105% => OK
gunning_fog: 11.2 11.1389221557 101% => OK
text_standard: 13.0 11.9071856287 109% => OK
What are above readability scores?
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Minimum four paragraphs wanted.
Rates: 66.67 out of 100
Scores by essay e-grader: 4.0 Out of 6
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Note: the e-grader does NOT examine the meaning of words and ideas. VIP users will receive further evaluations by advanced module of e-grader and human graders.