Correlative-causative structures and the 'pericause': an analysis of causation and a model based on cellular biology

Abstract

The advent of molecular biology has led to the identification of definitive causative factors for a number of diseases, most of which are monogenic. Causes for most common diseases across the population, however, seem elusive and cannot be pinpointed to a limited number of genes or genetic pathways. This realization has led to the idea of personalized medicine and treating each case individually. Nevertheless, since each common disease appears to have the same endpoint and phenotypic features in all diagnosed individuals, the search for a unifying cause will still continue. Given that multivariate scientific data is of a correlative nature and causation is always inferred, a simple formalization of the general structure of cause and correlation is presented herein. Furthermore, the context in which a causal structure could take shape, termed the 'pericause', is proposed as a tractable and uninvestigated concept which could theoretically play a crucial role in determining the effects of a cause.