Lexical and syntactic deficits analyzed via automated natural language processing: the new monitoring tool in multiple sclerosis.

Šubert, Martin; Novotný, Michal; Tykalová, Tereza; Srpová, Barbora; Friedová, Lucie; Uher, Tomáš; Horáková, Dana; Rusz, Jan (2023). Lexical and syntactic deficits analyzed via automated natural language processing: the new monitoring tool in multiple sclerosis. Therapeutic advances in neurological disorders, 16, p. 17562864231180719. Sage 10.1177/17562864231180719

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BACKGROUND

Impairment of higher language functions associated with natural spontaneous speech in multiple sclerosis (MS) remains underexplored.

OBJECTIVES

We presented a fully automated method for discriminating MS patients from healthy controls based on lexical and syntactic linguistic features.

METHODS

We enrolled 120 MS individuals with Expanded Disability Status Scale ranging from 1 to 6.5 and 120 age-, sex-, and education-matched healthy controls. Linguistic analysis was performed with fully automated methods based on automatic speech recognition and natural language processing techniques using eight lexical and syntactic features acquired from the spontaneous discourse. Fully automated annotations were compared with human annotations.

RESULTS

Compared with healthy controls, lexical impairment in MS consisted of an increase in content words (p = 0.037), a decrease in function words (p = 0.007), and overuse of verbs at the expense of noun (p = 0.047), while syntactic impairment manifested as shorter utterance length (p = 0.002), and low number of coordinate clause (p < 0.001). A fully automated language analysis approach enabled discrimination between MS and controls with an area under the curve of 0.70. A significant relationship was detected between shorter utterance length and lower symbol digit modalities test score (r = 0.25, p = 0.008). Strong associations between a majority of automatically and manually computed features were observed (r > 0.88, p < 0.001).

CONCLUSION

Automated discourse analysis has the potential to provide an easy-to-implement and low-cost language-based biomarker of cognitive decline in MS for future clinical trials.

Item Type:

Journal Article (Original Article)

Division/Institute:

04 Faculty of Medicine > Department of Head Organs and Neurology (DKNS) > Clinic of Neurology

UniBE Contributor:

Rusz, Jan

Subjects:

600 Technology > 610 Medicine & health

ISSN:

1756-2856

Publisher:

Sage

Language:

English

Submitter:

Pubmed Import

Date Deposited:

30 Jun 2023 10:33

Last Modified:

07 Jan 2024 02:25

Publisher DOI:

10.1177/17562864231180719

PubMed ID:

37384113

Uncontrolled Keywords:

automated linguistic analysis language multiple sclerosis nature language processing spontaneous discourse

BORIS DOI:

10.48350/184262

URI:

https://boris.unibe.ch/id/eprint/184262

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