Matched Allen mouse inhibitory pairs do not resolve membrane-time similarity at electrical connections

We tested whether electrically coupled inhibitory cells have more similar membrane time constants in Allen mouse visual cortex slice recordings. We matched cell pairs within recording, paired Cre and layer labels, and 50 micrometre distance bins. Only 25 of 101 eligible coupled pairs had controls. The coupled-minus-control difference in mean absolute log time-constant ratio was 0.128. Its 95% inferred-animal bootstrap interval was -0.090 to 0.391, from 23 inferred animals. This result does not resolve greater similarity or establish equal time constants. Omitting cell-label matching gave -0.222 with an interval of -0.436 to -0.015, but also changed the sample. Distance-bin, Pvalb-only, call-rule, and time-range checks did not resolve a primary similarity advantage. Small comparison support, missing cell measurements, broad labels, and uncertain detection limit inference. These measurements do not test firing synchrony or behavior. We supply pair values, code, source hashes, and an independent numerical audit.

electrical coupling · membrane time constant · Allen Institute · inhibitory circuits · matched comparison · null result