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so I just realized I forgot to #skeetprint my Contactomes paper... (is that what we're calling it?) www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6... @kordinglab.bsky.social @dacolon.bsky.social smithneurallab.weebly.com @jhuapl.bsky.social #academicsky #preprint #neuroscience

I first got excited about this ~8y ago when I started seeing a pattern in #microns and other datasets at bossdb.org @alleninstitute.org @bcmhouston.bsky.social @princeton.edu @mit.edu Usually neuron cell bodies are spread out... But every so often, you get what I call "cuddle buddies". wtf?

wow I totally thought this was a 2x cuddle buddy but it turns out to be a triple cuddle buddy too!! neuroglancer.bossdb.io#!https://sho... (Am I supposed to NSFW tag this..?)

That's super interesting! Can you explain what is a "Peter’s- rule-like view" to a non-specialist ? Do you think this contactome could be a substract for ephaptic coupling? Or is it "only" used to permit formation of new synapses?

A bunch more neuron cuddles here: www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

More generally, if you knew every cell a neuron touches, would you know something new beyond its synaptic #contactome? How many other cells does a neuron touch, anyway? Here was our first exploration: a single pyramidal cell (cyan), followed by all its synaptic partners, and then all its contacts:

Our first result was super obvious: in mice, CONTACT networks (the #contactome) are 5-10 times as dense as the synaptic connectome.