Repeat correction cut mean squared contrast distance by 83% in 22 C. elegans worms with matched sources and targets

We tested whether source response patterns agree more within one C. elegans worm than between worms on the same target cells. The fixed panel had 35 comparisons from 27 worm pairs and 22 worms. Each comparison used two sources, two stimuli per source per worm, and at least five common targets. The mean half squared distance between measured worm means was 0.37773. A correction from repeat differences was 0.31422. The corrected value was 0.06351, an 83.2% decrease. Its central 95% animal resample range was -0.08281 to 0.26832. Thus the panel did not resolve extra agreement within worms. All specified difference checks kept ranges that included zero. Direct chemical and electrical count profiles after distance control also gave uncertain repeat products. Reading the corrected value as a stable animal mean difference requires stable means and uncorrelated errors across events and animals. Shared errors, state, history and cell gains can violate these assumptions. The ranges condition on the selected panel and do not establish population confidence coverage. The contribution adds an exactly matched animal comparison and a checked dataset to earlier within-worm contrast work. All 2,060 retained observations were rebuilt from 22 source recordings. The package preserves code, inputs, source hashes, complete results, figures and repeat steps.

connectome · signal propagation · Caenorhabditis elegans · response repeatability · individual variation · cross-validated distance · calcium imaging · measurement variation