Vascular-Written Neural Pathway: Vascular Route Memory and Conflict Test

Vascular and neural trajectories can both align with scaffold structure, molecular gradients, and flow. When these cues point in the same direction, apparent neurovascular guidance does not establish causation. This Version 3 proposal introduces a conflict design in which scaffold anisotropy, metabolic or pro-angiogenic bias, and fluid-mechanical bias are deliberately oriented differently. Vascular trajectories are recorded through sprouting, connection, perfusion, pruning, and stabilization. The active environmental field is then altered before neural introduction to test whether subsequent axonal growth follows historical vascular geometry, current perfusion, scaffold structure, or a shared biochemical cue. A second experimental module asks where “vascular route memory” resides: living endothelial cells, ongoing flow, perivascular extracellular matrix, supporting cells, or scaffold geometry. The primary outcome is a preregistered, out-of-sample comparison of which pre-neural map best predicts the later axonal map. This is an open, falsifiable, and unvalidated preclinical research hypothesis. It is not a clinical treatment, medical advice, manufacturing specification, surgical protocol, claim of priority, or claim of patentability.