Contact area adjustment reversed pooled gap junction score differences at chemical sites under local count models in two C. elegans maps

We tested whether gap junctions join targets of the same chemical synapse record more often than fixed local input counts predict. We used 175 reference neurons in the JSH and N2U C. elegans nerve ring extracts from Brittin et al. The maps had 2,236 and 2,869 target pair occurrences. The primary reference kept every site target count and each target count in source, original target-count and 40-section groups fixed. Four chains gave 8,000 saved assignments per map. Raw gap-linked counts were 454 and 434, against reference means of 444.39 and 370.74. Ratios were 1.022 and 1.171. Upper-tail fractions after Holm correction were 0.164 and 0.00025. A planned contact score subtracted the gap-junction rate in each target pair's membrane contact area group. This changed the pooled recorded-minus-reference differences from +9.61 and +63.26 to -31.11 and -35.35. Five and twenty area groups, contact-section count and alternate axial bins kept negative pooled differences. After contact adjustment, equal source weights gave differences of +0.00733 and -0.00679, both within their central reference ranges. Thus the pooled result does not describe each source. Exact small-state checks, a second SQL reader and a full numerical repeat checked the work. The reference has no local contact constraints. The score adjustment is descriptive and can remove biological effects carried by contact area. Two reconstructions do not establish a population pattern, shared release or functional electrical coupling. The package preserves code, input facts, source hashes, draws, tables, figures and repeat steps.

connectome · Caenorhabditis elegans · polyadic synapse · gap junction · membrane contact · target group · fixed margins · Curveball · spatial controls · source weighting