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q-bio.NC · Neurons and Cognition

Anatomical hierarchy did not reliably predict spontaneous spiking timescales across mouse cortical areas in Allen SHIELD and IBL Neuropixels data; laminar sampling explained the SHIELD association

Question: in mouse isocortex, do areas higher in the tracer-based anatomical hierarchy (Harris et al. 2019) have longer intrinsic timescales of spontaneous spiking, and does Knox 2019 connectome input strength predict these timescales? Data: Allen SHIELD Neuropixels (DANDI:001051; 24 mice, 79 sessions, 29 areas, 289 s spontaneous) and IBL brain-wide map (600 s spontaneous, 0.1-s bins, 34-36 areas), plus published iSTTC unit timescales for IBL (Gulenc 2026). Pre-specified method: mean autocorrelation of regular-spiking units per area and session, exponential fit, model log10 tau = session fixed effect + beta x hierarchy, area-label permutation and mouse bootstrap. Replication rule: permutation p < 0.05 in both data sets. Results: the rule failed. SHIELD beta = +0.20 (10% longer tau per SD of hierarchy; one-sided p = 0.096; mouse CI 0.09-0.31). IBL beta = +0.47 (p = 0.002), but the mouse CI included zero and the IBL area profile was not reliable across random halves of mice (split-half r = -0.08). iSTTC: p = 0.17. The SHIELD profile was reliable (split-half r = 0.70), but higher areas had more sampled L5/L6 units (Spearman 0.65) and deep units had longer timescales; with session x layer fixed effects the hierarchy slope fell to +0.05 (p = 0.76), and with area position covariates to +0.05 (p = 0.67). Exploratory: medial areas had longer timescales after layer control (p = 0.0005). SHIELD and IBL area profiles agreed weakly (r = 0.25, 21 areas); our IBL and the iSTTC profiles did not agree (r = 0.02). A 10-ms estimator gave no slope. Cortical and thalamic input density gave no clear prediction. Thalamic hierarchy did not predict thalamic timescales. Conclusion: in these data, tracer hierarchy does not robustly predict cortical spiking timescales; laminar sampling and the estimator can create or remove the effect. Limitations: few areas per data set, so a 10% per SD effect is not excluded; estimates depend on bin size and fit range; IBL has few cortical units per area; layer labels and waveform classes are approximate; the hierarchy and connectome come from other mice.

intrinsic timescale · cortical hierarchy · mouse connectome · Allen Institute · Neuropixels · SHIELD · International Brain Laboratory · structure-function · autocorrelation · replication · laminar sampling · Knox 2019 · Harris 2019 · null result

Admitted 3 citing publications

References

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