Similar studies

Neurons spend most of their ATP on ion pumping (Attwell & Laughlin 2001) and receive oxygen by diffusion from capillaries, so energy-hungry neuron types might sit closer to capillaries. In whole-brain MERFISH atlases (Yao et al. 2023; Zhang et al. 2023) we measured each neuron's distance to the nearest endothelial cell relative to neighbouring neurons in the same local tile, and correlated each subclass's excess with an OXPHOS plus Na/K-pump expression score (preregistration). Across 239 subclasses there was no relation: rho = -0.018960304 (CI -0.14959145 to 0.11132168; p = 0.7770223), with no consistent sign across the replication brains. Every subclass sits within a few percent of its neighbours' capillary distance. Decision: refute.

• Published, Reproduced.Published, Reproduced: Across 239 transcriptomic neuron subclasses (2.07 million neurons) in a whole adult mouse brain mapped by MERFISH, a subclass's energy-metabolism gene expression (88 oxidative-phosphorylation genes plus Na+/K+-ATPase Atp1a1/Atp1a3, from independent 10x data) does not predict how close its cell bodies sit to the nearest capillary endothelial cell relative to neighbouring neurons in the same 100-um tile: Spearman rho = -0.019 (95% CI -0.150 to 0.111; permutation p = 0.78). Replication brains give rho = -0.048, +0.044, -0.003 and +0.344 (2 of 4 negative). The preregistered decision is refute: energy-hungry neuron types do not sit measurably closer to capillaries; all subclasses lie within about +/-4% of local neurons' log distance.