Combining cell profiles lowers stability limits in separately normalized models of two adult worm maps

We tested how the unit of anatomical uncertainty changes stability in linear models from two adult C. elegans chemical maps. A selected common core had 157 cells. We normalized each contact-count matrix by its own spectral radius. Either fixed map was stable below gain 1. Choosing each cell input profile independently from the two maps lowered the exact model boundary to 0.946261. Choosing output profiles lowered it to 0.921425. Independent edges gave 0.852276. Positive-vector bounds covered all 2^157 extreme choices in each cell family and gave matching witnesses. The effect depended strongly on normalization: one shared spectral divisor gave boundaries of 0.996884 and 0.989879. Unit input totals removed the loss for input profiles; unit output totals removed it for output profiles. Caps on contact weights changed the order of the two cell results. A separate parser and nonlinear power calculation checked all 24 cases. These are model benchmarks, not observed instability. Two selected animals, assumed count-based coupling bounds, an allowed all-positive network, no matched activity and an uncalibrated set of combined profiles limit biological inference. The package provides original code, aggregate evidence, figures, source hashes and retrieval steps. External source records and derivative matrices remain outside the baseline publication.

C. elegans · connectomics · stability · anatomical uncertainty · cell profiles · positive systems · spectral normalization · reproducible methods