Sui Generis-ness, Parsimony and Innocence: The (Meta)2physics of Parthood

A metaphysical naturalist could find the following combination of claims attractive. First, part-whole and composition in physics are sui generis and lack some of the ‘core’ features we ascribe to these concepts and their worldly satisfiers in first-order metaphysics. Second, having agreed that some physical objects of interest satisfy sui generis concepts and/or relate by sui generis relations, none among these objects satisfies a classical concept or relate by a classical part-whole relation (e.g. the concept or relation of mereological part). The first claim I read as one of ‘appropriation’: the structural relations between physical objects of interest are sui generis and yet they pertain to the mereological kind. The second I read as one of ‘elimination’: metaphysically abstracted part-whole (or composition) has no instances in well- regarded physical domains. The dissertation argues for appropriation and against elimination. For appropriation, because current physics sanctions relata of part-whole relations (or at least satisfiers of part-whole concepts) that clash with intuitive, seemingly analytic principles for part-whole, e.g. the Antisymmetry postulate (x and y are mutual parts only if identical). Against elimination, because whether these objects of interest to physics also relate by ‘canonical’ part-whole (with the intuitive principles) is largely a question of parsimony. One removes instances of the canonical relations because these are not needed to account for the composition of objects that already relate by the non-canonical ones. But some of these relations at least (such as mereological part-whole) resist the pressure from parsimony, for they come at no cost once the objects already relate non-canonically (e.g. in opposition to the Antisymmetry postulate). The latter we can argue for in (at least) two ways: 1. canonical and non-canonical part-whole are members of a single kind, 2. canonical part-whole is of a kind with identity. Given either view and a preference for theories with minimal kinds, instances of the canonical relation do not increase a theory’s profligacy, because their kind is already instanced in a theory of objects that relate non-canonically. My preference is for the latter view

Increase in Mitochondrial D-Loop Region Methylation Levels in Mild Cognitive Impairment Individuals

Methylation levels of the mitochondrial displacement loop (D-loop) region have been reported to be altered in the brain and blood of Alzheimer's disease (AD) patients. Moreover, a dynamic D-loop methylation pattern was observed in the brain of transgenic AD mice along with disease progression. However, investigations on the blood cells of AD patients in the prodromal phases of the disease have not been performed so far. The aim of this study was to analyze D-loop methylation levels by means of the MS-HRM technique in the peripheral blood cells of 14 mild cognitive impairment (MCI) patients, 18 early stage AD patients, 70 advanced stage AD patients, and 105 healthy control subjects. We found higher D-loop methylation levels in MCI patients than in control subjects and AD patients. Moreover, higher D-loop methylation levels were observed in control subjects than in AD patients in advanced stages of the disease, but not in those at early stages. The present pilot study shows that peripheral D-loop methylation levels differ in patients at different stages of AD pathology, suggesting that further studies deserve to be performed in order to validate the usefulness of D-loop methylation analysis as a peripheral biomarker for the early detection of AD

SELECTIVE ASSOCIATIVE PHONAGNOSIA AFTER RIGHT ANTERIOR TEMPORAL STROKE

We report the case of a 48 year old men who developed a selective impairment in famous voice recognition after ischemic stroke in right subcortical structures (lenticular nucleus and head of the caudate) and right anterior temporal lobe. He underwent fibrinolytic treatment. During the following days he progressively recovered and was discharged without neurological focal sign. Patent foramen ovale was found. When he got back to his house he noticed that he was unable to recognize the voice of his favoured singers and needed to ask who was the singer to his relatives. Neuropsychological examination revealed a selective impairment in famous voice recognition in the absence of alteration of voice perception, face perception and famous face recognition. All other neuropsychological domains were spared. In particular language, memory and executive functions were intact. Neuroimaging carried out by means of PET and MRI revealed two small ischemic lesions in the right subcortical region, involving lenticular and caudate nuclei and in the right temporal pole. To our knowledge, this is the first case described in literature of a patient showing a selective associative phonagnosia after right anterior temporal stroke. The present case helps to clarify the brain circuits underlying famous voice recognition and adds evidence in favour of a right hemisphere involvement in processing knowledge of familiar voices. These findings are discussed in relation to current models of brain organization of person-specific and general semantic knowledge.