With 588 input sites and 588 replacement draws, two adult C. elegans maps gave fewer expected connections than the birth map among 162 embryonic neurons

We tested whether equal numbers of replacement draws remove input count effects in a connectome comparison. We used eight C. elegans maps and the same 162 embryonic neurons. At 588 replacement draws, expected connection counts in two adults were 24.5 and 26.8 percent above birth. We then selected 588 different input sites in each map before the replacement draws. The adult expectations were 488.59 and 499.09 connections, compared with 505.48 at birth. These values were 3.34 and 1.26 percent lower. An exact mixture of ordinary site count curves gives the expectation for both sampling stages. A control with fixed site probabilities still gave a 19.58 percent increase when only input dataset size grew. Matching input counts within source neurons also reduced the large excess. The package includes a proof, tested code, compact inputs, figures, source checks, and reproduction instructions. The results describe artificial draws from fixed graphs. They do not establish a population age effect or estimate unseen biological connections.

connectome · C. elegans · development · synapse sites · sampling with replacement · input count · rarefaction · connection richness