Mirror connections at birth marked higher adult occurrence after early count adjustment in two C. elegans brains

We tested whether a mirror connection in a young worm marks a connection that occurs in two adult brains. We used public chemical synapse data from four young C. elegans and two separate adults. The main sample had 576 directed connections at birth among 150 paired neurons. Of 384 connections with a mirror copy, 343 (89.3%) occurred in both adults. Of 192 connections without a mirror copy, 95 (49.5%) occurred in both adults. Adjustment for early synapse count gave a difference of 25.0 percentage points. The central 95% range from neuron-class resampling was 12.5 to 44.0 points. A model that also used early contact area, neuron degree, cell type and side gave an odds ratio of 3.90. Three other young brains gave positive count-adjusted differences. They share the same adult outcomes. Adding mirror presence improved mean prediction scores, but the range for the gain included zero. This is evidence of an association in these fixed brains. It does not prove synapse survival, a causal mechanism or general prediction gain. The package has figures, derived data, code, input hashes, source URLs and repeat instructions.

connectome · Caenorhabditis elegans · bilateral symmetry · development · synapse count · physical contact · cross-validation · reproducibility