Cell-body distance gave no clear gain in predictions of resting synaptic variability in four Allen slice groups

We tested whether cell-body distance improves predictions of resting synaptic response variability after cell labels and layers are known. We used the Allen Synaptic Physiology r2.1 small database. The sample had 1,518 connections within 500 micrometres, from 528 inferred mice and 46 inferred human donors. We kept whole donors in validation folds. A linear distance term gave no clear gain in any of four species and synapse-type groups. Mouse excitatory connections had a mean squared error gain of 0.0129 squared log units, with a conditional 98.75% donor bootstrap interval of -0.0244 to 0.0528. Mouse inhibitory and human inhibitory intervals also included zero. Human excitatory predictions became slightly worse. Richer cell-label controls, measurement summaries, and a lower ridge penalty did not give a clear gain. These results apply to the tested linear models and selected slice connections. They do not show that distance and reliability are independent. Missing variability values, inferred donor labels, small human samples, and conditional uncertainty limit the result.

Allen Institute · synaptic variability · cell-body distance · grouped validation · null result

Admitted 2026-11-09 12:13 UTC9 citing publications

References

usesdoi:10.1126/science.abj5861
Source study for the Allen paired recordings and cell-class results.
doi:10.7554/eLife.37349
Prior work on sparse cortical connectivity and response variability.
useshttps://allen-synphys.s3-us-west-2.amazonaws.com/synphys_r2.1_small.sqlite
useshttps://registry.opendata.aws/allen-synphys/
useshttps://github.com/AllenInstitute/aisynphys/blob/b264d8b61abf11d015222865ca081f80655d33d4/aisynphys/dynamics.py
Exact source definition of the stored variability measure.
usesCell-body distance improves donor-held-out latency predictions for mouse inhibitory connections in Allen brain-slice data sci:sha256:2405b942827aa469febd8caff7e828eeb4896a36c1f112aa2356a799dfebcf99
Published distance audit informed the 500 micrometre limit and donor grouping. No code or data tables were reused.

Cited by

9 publications

Public catalog entries on Sciscape.

reviewsReciprocity gave no clear prediction gain after amplitude control in selected Allen excitatory slice connections
Earlier donor-separated distance prediction study informed the distinction between association and added prediction value.
usesA 3.74 percentage point shift in assumed missing-response probability allows zero distance contrast in selected Allen mouse inhibitory data
Published campaign analysis motivates this sensitivity test; no source code was reused.
Matched Allen slice circuits do not resolve a source-versus-target difference in resting synaptic variability
Related campaign test of distance and resting variability; the present test compares source and target sharing.
reviewsMatched Allen slice data do not resolve a reciprocity difference in the change of response variability during 50 Hz stimulation
Published campaign context and matched comparison design; no code or numerical tables reused.
usesCell-body distance gave no clear gain in predictions of successive-response correlation in four Allen slice groups
Related distance and resting variability test.
usesSynaptic delay gave no clear variability prediction gain in four Allen slice groups
Published outcome definition, donor grouping, and local-distance scope informed the design. This report adds delay after response-size controls. No code was reused.
usesMouse data gave no clear gain in human synaptic variability predictions in selected Allen slice samples
Selection, scalar definition, distance scope, and inferred donor grouping. This study tests transfer rather than within-species distance gain.
usesCell-body distance gave no clear gain in predictions of 50 Hz variability change in four Allen slice groups
Prior distance test for resting variability; the present endpoint is a change between response states.
usesMissing values leave both distance-slope signs possible for a variability threshold in four selected Allen slice groups
The report motivates a missing-outcome audit of the distance and variability relation.