Alice in Neuroland: Trivia

Just when it looks like the optic nerve would never actually come to an end: behold, a door appears before you, with a sign stating that this leads to the “Lateral Geniculate Nucleus.” Whatever that could be, you aren’t sure, but this is the only way Alice and the rabbit could likely have gone, so you see yourself through the door and are immediately confronted by a beautifully peaceful neural forest. It appears to be uninhabited apart from a broadly smiling cat perched on an overhanging branch.

“Hello,” says the cat. “I am the Cheshire Cat, and this is the Lateral Geniculate Nucleus.”

“What on earth is that?” you wonder. “That’s quite a number of fancy words to say all together.”

Unnervingly, without breaking that smile, the Cheshire Cat explains, “Oh, this is a part of the brain’s thalamus, and it’s in here that most of the information from the optic nerve gets transmitted onward to the visual cortex in the occipital lobe. That was an even larger number of fancy words to say all together, but now you know.”

“Thank you,” you say, a bit haplessly. “Um, did a White Rabbit happen to run through here? Or someone called Alice? Where would they have gone?”

“Hm.” Still smiling, but tilting its head in one direction and then the other while it thinks, the Cheshire Cat ultimately declares, “If you can answer some questions of mine first, those answers will tell you all you need to know!”

Trivia How-To: The bot will start firing off questions at 11:00 AM EDT on 4/22 and continue until 11:00 AM EDT on 4/24, at which point things will finish with a power hour till noon. Submit your answers by typing them into the chat box. Optional: you may submit answers privately by messaging @CheshireCat if you do not want other players to see your responses. To do this, type /pm CheshireCat before your message.

Swag (generously sponsored by @susi): The top scoring player will win 1 mug and 1 sticker sheet! Second and third place each also win sticker sheets.

Bonuses for each question

1st to answer – 300 points
2nd to answer – 200 points
3rd to answer – 100 points

With the cat being the only creature around here who seems to have any info for your quest, you’d best get to it!

Artwork by Daniela Gamba