Early chemical edge presence gave no clear relative response dispersion prediction gain in 429 selected worm pairs

We tested whether a chemical connection present in both early L1 worm maps helps predict the relative dispersion of adult evoked responses. We linked four Witvliet maps to the Randi wild-type atlas by cell name. The selected sample had 429 directed pairs and 3819 response observations. We divided the mean absolute difference between responses by their mean absolute value. A ridge model controlled adult chemical and electrical counts, adult map agreement, response count, response scale and cell identity. Five folds held out source cell families. Adding early presence changed mean squared error from 0.06154027 to 0.06171443. The reduction was -0.00017416, with a conditional 95 percent crossed-family interval from -0.00060674 to 0.00018549. No sensitivity test gave a clear positive gain. The atlas count field differed from the response-list length in 270 selected pairs. Separate animals, pooled observations, few anatomy maps and unequal count ranges limit the test. The result does not establish equal physiology or within-animal reliability. Code, observation values, source hashes and a figure support reproduction.

C. elegans · connectome · development · response dispersion · signal propagation · null result