Supports· weakORCH-E012
Same effect in mice (+29 s, d = 0.8) — same laboratory, not independent
- what the source states
- The abstract reports that a single 8 mg/kg subcutaneous dose of epothilone B delayed isoflurane-induced LORR in mice by 29 seconds in a within-subject comparison, with Cohen's d = 0.8, and that the effect decayed over subsequent days. The abstract states the effect "is not large compared to the variability among different animals" and cites the contradictory independent finding of Li et al. 2025.
- what we infer
- A cross-species extension that reproduces the direction of the rat result, which is worth something — but it is a within-program replication with a shared senior author, not the independent confirmation that would matter, and the effect is smaller in both absolute and standardized terms. Graded weak for that reason. The authors deserve explicit credit for citing the contradictory independent study in their own abstract rather than omitting it; that is the behavior of a research program engaging with disconfirmation.
- limitations
- Same senior author and research program as ORCH-E011; a replication of direction within one laboratory, not independent confirmation.
- Smaller effect than the rat study and acknowledged by the authors as modest against inter-animal variability.
- Effect decayed on subsequent days, which the paper reports but does not explain.
- No quantum variable measured; same wholesale-perturbation confounds as the rat study.