Infections are a cause of encephalopathy. Many types of bacteria, viruses, and fungi can cause encephalitis by infection and inflammation of the brain tissue or of the meninges (meningitis) that line the brain and spinal cord.
A value of zero indicates that there is no relationship between the two variables. If the correlation coefficient of two variables is zero, it signifies that there is no linear relationship between the variables. However, this is only for a linear relationship; it is possible that the variables have a strong curvilinear relationship.
If the variables are independent, Pearson's correlation coefficient is 0, but the converse is not true because the correlation coefficient detects only linear dependencies between two variables. For example, suppose the random variable X is symmetrically distributed about zero, and Y = X 2.