{
  "abstract": "Patch-seq datasets pair each neuron's transcriptome with its electrophysiology, and several studies report that ion channel gene expression predicts electrophysiological features with high cross-validated accuracy. Here I ask how much of that accuracy reflects a relationship within a transcriptomic cell type rather than differences between types. In 1,328 mouse motor cortex neurons, ridge regression on 390 channel genes reproduces published accuracy (R² up to 0.68). On the same cells, removing type means from both expression and target reduces mean R² across 29 features from 0.270 to 0.0024. A within-type residual survives a permutation null for 12 features (7 after false discovery correction), largest for the number of action potentials, input resistance and membrane time constant; resting membrane potential shows none (p = 0.76). Because cross-validated R² strongly underestimates weak effects at this sample size, I calibrated it against planted effects of known size. The implied true within-type R² for the best-predicted features is about 0.05 to 0.10, about four to fourteen times below raw accuracy, and below 0.05 for resting potential. For 13 Hodgkin-Huxley parameters fitted to the same cells in previous work, within-type and within-family R² are indistinguishable from zero, so family-level prediction reflects family means. Results hold with a second, curated channel gene list. Raw accuracy in this setting mostly measures how separable cell types are. Larger datasets should improve within-type prediction, but toward a ceiling several times below current raw figures.",
  "abstract_shown": true,
  "affiliations": [
    "Independent researcher, Kathmandu, Nepal"
  ],
  "article_type": null,
  "arxiv": null,
  "author_total": 1,
  "authors": [
    {
      "affs": [
        0
      ],
      "name": "Aashish Kharel",
      "orcid": "0009-0001-1785-8228"
    }
  ],
  "bibtex": "https://research.draconitic.com/paper/ds8q92n4c85cf.bib",
  "cited_by": 0,
  "doi": "10.5281/zenodo.23533515",
  "fulltext_url": null,
  "id": "ds8q92n4c85cf",
  "issns": [],
  "landing_url": "https://zenodo.org/records/23533515",
  "language": "eng",
  "licence": "CC-BY-4.0",
  "licence_label": "CC BY 4.0",
  "licence_source": "article",
  "licence_url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/",
  "metadata_licence": null,
  "native_subjects": [],
  "openalex": null,
  "pdf_url": "https://zenodo.org/api/records/23533515/files/Kharel_ion_channel_preprint.pdf/content",
  "pmcid": null,
  "pmid": null,
  "published": "2026-10-21",
  "publisher": null,
  "ris": "https://research.draconitic.com/paper/ds8q92n4c85cf.ris",
  "sources": [
    {
      "first_seen": "2026-11-04T12:21:09Z",
      "native_id": "23533515",
      "source": "zenodo",
      "url": "https://zenodo.org/records/23533515"
    }
  ],
  "subjects": [],
  "title": "Ion channel expression mostly predicts neuronal cell identity, and only weakly predicts electrophysiology within a cell type",
  "title_text": "Ion channel expression mostly predicts neuronal cell identity, and only weakly predicts electrophysiology within a cell type",
  "type": "preprint",
  "updated_at": "2026-11-04T12:21:09Z",
  "url": "https://research.draconitic.com/paper/ds8q92n4c85cf",
  "venue": "Zenodo",
  "versions": []
}