Larger initial spines had more visual calcium tuning energy but no clear five-day stability gain in 13 mice, assuming independent repeat errors

We tested whether initial optical spine area separates later visual tuning stability among retained spines. We used 795 five-day binocular response records from 22 neurons in 13 mice in Figshare 28738592 version 1. Small and large groups were split within each imaged field at the initial area median. Distinct-repeat products estimated tuning energy and squared change under independent repeat errors. Mice had equal weight in the component means. The large group had 3.061 times the mean endpoint tuning energy of the small group, with a 95% mouse bootstrap interval of 1.655 to 5.453. It also had more change energy. The primary ratio of change energy to endpoint energy was 0.600 in small spines and 0.546 in large spines. The large-minus-small difference was -0.054, with an interval of -0.393 to 0.286. Removing one mouse could change its sign. Planned trial and scale checks kept the overall difference uncertain. An added comparison in the same eight mice and 14 cells did not establish an age difference. The data support more measured tuning signal in larger initial spines, but do not establish greater overall stability. Unknown optical calibration, shared errors, retention selection and one small animal sample limit inference. Original source rebuilding, independent arithmetic checks, simulations and a clean offline repeat passed. The package includes code, compact data, source hashes, all results, figures and repeat steps.

dendritic spine · structure and function · visual cortex · calcium imaging · tuning stability · measurement noise · longitudinal data