Electroencephalography Alpha-Band Oscillations as Potential Indicators of Executive Subcomponents Dysfunction correlating to the Severity of Cerebral Small Vessel Disease

Cerebral small vessel disease (CSVD) relates to executive dysfunction. While electroencephalography (EEG) alpha-band oscillations are promising biomarkers for cognitive impairment, their relationship with specific subcomponents of executive function in CSVD remains unclear. We aimed to investigate the association between EEG alpha-band oscillations and subcomponents of executive function-inhibitory control and working memory-among patients with CSVD. This was a cross-sectional analysis of an ongoing national registry research of CSVD (KY 2019-140-01). Five-minute resting-state EEG was recorded for analyzing occipital and frontal alpha-band indexes including peak frequency (PFα), occipital-frontal ΔPFα, and neurophysiological cognitive level. Inhibitory control and working memory were respectively evaluated by the Victoria Stroop Test (VST) and Digit Span. Associations and screening performance were assessed through logistic regression and ROC-AUC analysis with bootstrap internal validation. A total of 181 CSVD patients (age=60±12.0 years, male=61.9%) were recruited. After adjusting for age, gender, education, and CSVD severity, all PFα were associated with VST trial-2 completion time and VST composite time, respectively (all p<0.05). PFα(O1) have shown association with VST trial-3 completion time (p<0.05). PFα(O1) and PFα(O2) were associated with the high interference score, respectively (all p<0.05). We have set up fifty-six alpha-band-related models, and twenty-four models were selected with apparent AUC ranging from 0.6 to 0.83. The highest apparent AUC for inhibitory control impairment was 0.83, with an optimism-corrected AUC of 0.80. Alpha-band oscillations showed no robust association with working memory. In conclusion, resting-state EEG alpha-band parameters were associated with inhibitory control, but had no connection with working memory, in patients with CSVD. These findings suggested that resting-state EEG alpha-band oscillations can serve as an objective, accessible tool for assessing specific executive deficits in patients with CSVD.