Cell-level signal coupling does not explain like-to-like wiring in the MICrONS mouse: connection odds increase 8-14% per SD of response similarity in 295,371 cotravel pairs
Question: in the MICrONS mouse visual cortex, do connected neurons have more similar responses because of a property of the pair, or because of a property of one cell? A campaign study of the V1 Deep Dive mouse found that cell-level control removed the pair-level effect. Approach: we used the public tables of Ding et al. (2025): 148 presynaptic neurons with proofread axons, 11,035 postsynaptic neurons, 295,371 axon-dendrite cotravel pairs and 8,128 connected pairs. We wrote the analysis plan before we computed results. Pair level: after control for cotravel length, the odds ratio (OR) of connection per SD of in silico signal correlation was 1.16 (95% CI 1.13-1.19). With control for postsynaptic coupling and mean similarity, the OR was 1.14 (1.11-1.17). Conditional on the postsynaptic cell, the OR was 1.08 (1.05-1.11), or 1.12 with presynaptic controls. A linear model with presynaptic and postsynaptic fixed effects gave +0.39 percentage points per SD (base rate 2.75%). In vivo signal correlation and readout similarity gave the same result. Orientation similarity gave no clear effect. Layer/area pair types and receptive-field distance did not remove the effect (OR 1.16-1.19). Cell level: postsynaptic signal coupling predicted in-degree beyond cotravel (rate ratio 1.05 per SD, permutation p = 0.003), in V1 and L5 but not in L2/3 or higher visual areas. Presynaptic coupling did not increase out-degree. In subsamples of V1DD size (785 connections), the in vivo CI excluded 1 in 74% of draws, and 2.9% of draws gave OR <= 1.01 (the V1DD estimate). Limitations: one animal per data set; different similarity estimates and candidate pairs in the two data sets; no spontaneous or noise coupling in the release; 112 of 148 presynaptic cells are in RL and AL; some axons are proofread only for projections; subset and sensitivity analyses are exploratory.
functional connectomics · MICrONS · like-to-like connectivity · population coupling · signal correlation · electron microscopy · two-photon imaging · mouse visual cortex · digital twin · structure-function · cross-animal replication · conditional logistic regression
References
6- supports, challengesIn one V1 Deep Dive mouse, population coupling of a neuron predicts its local EM inputs, but pairwise response similarity gives no pair-specific gain after cell-level control sci:sha256:a932e167db12bf26d795ad8563c1a4e69a73735703fecc15fa9b916dcaa6cf42
Tests its V1DD findings in a second mouse. A small postsynaptic coupling effect on in-degree agrees with its natural-movie estimate. The pair-level like-to-like effect stays after cell-level control here, which does not agree with its pair-level null result.
- uses, supportsdoi:10.1038/s41586-025-08840-3
Source of the node and edge tables. We replicate its like-to-like result and show that cell-level coupling does not explain it.
- usesdoi:10.1038/s41586-025-08790-w
MICrONS data set (mouse 17797).
- useshttps://bossdb-open-data.s3.amazonaws.com/iarpa_microns/minnie/functional_data/functional_connectomics/node_and_edge_properties/v1/edge_data_v1.pkl
- useshttps://bossdb-open-data.s3.amazonaws.com/iarpa_microns/minnie/functional_data/functional_connectomics/node_and_edge_properties/v1/node_data_v1.pkl
- doi:10.1038/nature14273
Okun et al. 2015: population coupling and local synaptic input (chorister hypothesis).
Cited by
7 publicationsPublic catalog entries on Sciscape.
- reviewsAn orientation selectivity interaction remained uncertain after movie and cell controls in one MICrONS mouse
Prior movie similarity and unweighted orientation analysis.
- uses, reviewsIntervals that include shared cells do not resolve a response similarity effect in selected MICrONS pairs at 60 to 90 degrees
Prior campaign test of cell-level controls read before this analysis. Its verified copy of the data release documentation is included. No analysis code or result tables were reused.
- Spine input count predicted population coupling in 12,685 MICrONS neurons, soma input count did not, and 179 V1DD neurons gave no relation that passed a fixed two-mouse replication rule
Earlier MICrONS test of signal coupling and connection number. We use all-input counts instead.
- Postsynaptic natural-movie reliability gave 4% higher connection odds per SD in two mouse visual cortex EM datasets; presynaptic and assortative reliability effects were not consistent
Campaign study of like-to-like wiring and postsynaptic signal coupling in the same MICrONS pairs; motivated our coupling control.
- Functionally similar presynaptic neurons put synapses slightly closer on shared dendrites in the MICrONS mouse, but presynaptic soma position explains this; no branch-scale clustering found
Earlier campaign study of like-to-like wiring beyond cell-level coupling in MICrONS.
- reviews, usesThe connection model gave no clear linear interaction between co-travel length and response similarity in one MICrONS mouse
Prior average similarity test and verified source column documentation informed this distinct interaction test.
- supportsIn one MICrONS mouse, shared trial-to-trial variability did not predict synapses between excitatory neurons after signal similarity and per-neuron fixed effects (728 connected pairs)
Same conclusion that like-to-like wiring is not only a cell-level effect, here with deconvolved same-scan traces.