About Eyewire, A Game to Map the Brain

How it works

Eyewire is a game to map the brain. Anyone can play and you need no scientific background — hundreds of thousands of people from around the world already do. Together we are mapping the 3D structure of neurons and advancing our quest to understand ourselves.

By joining Eyewire, you can help map the connectome, starting with connections between retinal neurons. Eyewire gameplay advances neuroscience by helping researchers discover how neurons connect and network to process information. You also help develop advanced artificial intelligence and computational technologies for mapping the connectome.

In Eyewire, gamers transform into the Heroes of Neuroscience.

People like you solve 3D puzzles to map vast neuron branches, completing reconstructions of cells and ultimately, entire circuits.

For fun. For science!

As you trace through each neuron you’ll rack up points based on speed, skill, and accuracy. Trace your way to the top of the leaderboard, engage in themed competitions against your Eyewire friends, and earn badges to show off your Eyewire achievements. If you’re good enough you can climb the ranks to Advanced Player, Scout, and the prestigious Order of the Scythe.

Look out for special in-game events.

Happy Hour 180: Thursdays, 8-10 AM US ET
Happy Hour: Fridays, 2-4 PM US ET
HH3: Fridays, 10 PM-midnight US ET
Team Versus: Every other week (24 hrs, see blog for latest teams)
Marathon: Monthly, 24h race to trace a cell in record time
Challenge Week: Themed competitions held every other month full of mini games like Evil Cubes, Trivia, and Accuracy Happy Hours that offer competitors limited edition badges, loads of points bonuses, and occasionally, free swag.

Eyewire is also a great way to meet friends from across the globe. Some of our players have even met up in person. Check out these Featured Eyewirers to learn a little more about the members of our favorite online community!

Coming soon: Neo, a new brain mapping game from the creators of Eyewire. Signup to be notified when the beta goes live at neo.eyewire.org. Neo is supported by the Intelligence Advanced Research Projects Activity (IARPA) via Department of Interior/ Interior Business Center (DoI/IBC) contract numberD16PC0005.

Eyewire is a project of Princeton University’s Seung Lab. Our HQ is based in downtown Boston. Check this post for present and former team members. Eyewire is supported by NIH grant UH2 CA203710. Seung Lab is also supported by ARO and the Mathers Foundation.

Eyewire 101

Why we do what we do:

Inspiration: Sebastian Seung’s TEDTalk

We appreciate your participation in this landmark endeavor for science!

16 Responses to "About Eyewire, A Game to Map the Brain"

Robert Godwin says:

March 31, 2014 at 11:30 am

I am working on a project to map user gameplay against personality traits. have you done any research/algorithms along those lines?
James says:

October 21, 2014 at 6:39 pm

What a genius idea and I’m glad to see the sucess that EyeWire has enjoyed so far. I look forward to seeing discoveries from EyeWire for years to come!

I wish I could apply for a job to work with the fine people who thought this up. I’ve wanted to take game ideas and merge them with science for a long time but I don’t feel capable as an independent developer. Unfortunately I lack the right knowledge base to do development on EyeWire and that makes me more than a bit sad.

If you ever end up developing another science based tool using the Unity Engine, or something based in or around C#, I will definitely apply to work on the project!
Bernardo Escobar says:

October 21, 2014 at 10:15 pm

Hey, congratulations, but please advise, MY COMPUTER GETS COMPLETELY SLOW when trying to play your game…

so please let me know what are the PC requirements since i could not find them into your website.

Thank you
From Costa Rica
Larry says:

February 21, 2015 at 5:36 pm

I have a couple questions:
1) Where did the reference image for Eyewire come from. A single brain scan?
2) Connections between synapses are known to develop (and atrophy) in response to stimuli. Once this project is completed, how can the map be generalized to represent all humans (or all mammals)?
Ana says:

April 25, 2015 at 12:18 pm

Hi,

3 questions, please…

Is there a point where a player is not actually helpful? For example if a person only has an accuracy rate of 49%, is that actually detrimental to your efforts?

Have you guys read the book The Professor and the Madman by Simon Winchester? or any other book about the usage of community to create the Oxford English Dictionary? maybe you would find it interesting. ..
I can’t help think about it as I play eyewire.

Apart from the youtube tutorials by Rachel, which I found very helpful, is there a way for a new player to “watch” someone as they work a cube? To try and get a better feel for technique?

thanks!
reyhanetpour says:

July 17, 2015 at 2:37 am

Hi
i’m designing a game which teaches neuroscience, it teaches the rules in physics too, like quantum mechanics ,my major is physics and i think i can do it well,
its about a new world with new rules, a world which its rules are different from the real, and we can see incredibles events in it,
its about some physicist like Dirac, Heisenburg, Einestein and… who has forgotten their memories , and of course i used a model in neuroscience which models the memory,
This game will be Comic and its an advantage that can Persuade people to play it,
I need your help to make this game, unfortunately i dont know how to perform my idea,
really thanks
Erez Garty says:

July 23, 2015 at 3:12 am

Hi
I would like to translate the game to Hebrew. Is that possible?
Thanks
Erez
1. Devon Jones says:
  
  July 23, 2015 at 12:38 pm
  
  Hi Erez,
  
  Can you clarify what you mean by translating the game to Hebrew? Do you mean making an entirely Hebrew-language version of the site? Right now the only alternate language we have overall for the site is Korean. If you would be interested in doing Hebrew subtitles for some of our instructional videos or Hebrew translations on our wiki, that is an option where we always welcome player assistance.
  
  Devon
  1. Erez Garty says:
    
    July 23, 2015 at 4:25 pm
    
    Hi Devon
    What meant was to translate the game itself so Israeli middle school students can participate in it. We have done similar projects with Phylo, Foldit and PhET by translating string for string.
    Erez
    1. Devon Jones says:
      
      July 24, 2015 at 12:32 pm
      
      That sounds like an interesting idea. I cannot personally speak to how easy to coordinate this would be, but I would suggest e-mailing support@eyewire.org with your proposal; that way the right people will see it. Thank you!
Igor Cerovsky says:

August 21, 2015 at 3:59 am

Nice project!

I have few proposals:
– It would be nice to add 3 perpendicular planes to better trace the neuron. This is common settings in medical software.
– The segmentation algorithm makes sometimes mistakes. However it is hard to corrects such a mistakes, maybe some eraser tool, or some adjustable algorithm threshold for advanced users. Yes, it is maybe too complicated for people not familiar with the segmentation algorithms.
– Add the three perpendicular planes to the 3D view
– Train some detectors for known features

I developed for more that 5 years volume rendering from medical application, then I used AI and image processing mostly for face detection and face features detection.
Maybe I can help with something, if you’d like.

Cheers
Igor
Christine Lynch says:

May 30, 2016 at 1:10 pm

I couldn’t find any instructions that explained what the object is or how to earn “points”? In the overview section I’m seeing a blue blob. Then I go on to see it attached to a larger gold blob. So, is this a good thing? What am I looking for? And where do the other “players” find the answers to these questions.
Lucille says:

August 31, 2016 at 10:32 am

Hello,
I am a student in Fine Arts and I m interested on the visual of neuronal construction which we contribute.
I have a question : May I use the map (by video capture) I made for my own ? May I include it on my projects or is there kind of copyrights ?

Thanks !
Ricardo says:

February 17, 2017 at 5:56 pm

I couldn’t find any instructions that explained what the object is or how to earn “points”? In the overview section I’m seeing a blue blob. Thanks!
1. D. Jones says:
  
  February 21, 2017 at 12:35 pm
  
  Hi Ricardo,
  
  If you click “Start Playing” that will take you to the tutorial, which will explain what you’re supposed to do. Let us know in chat if you still need help!
joana Silva Ferreira says:

April 3, 2017 at 8:42 pm

I never thought that my brains was soo amazing.

Comments are closed.