Countdown to Neuropia: Complete!
CONGRATULATIONS! We completed KT’s Countdown to Neuropia in an astounding 9 months and 18 days! The Countdown was a quest to map all the neurons in a region of the EyeWire dataset, thus discovering new cell types and connectivities. We expected it to take well over a year to complete. But since Countdown launch on October 9, you’ve DOUBLED the cell completion rate. We not only finished it but did so faster than HQ ever imagined! What have we discovered so far? Many cells — 245 to be exact. Some are so unique that no one has ever seen them before! The team at Princeton is busy analyzing them and trying to determine whether we have discovered entirely new types. Check out the video below for a snapshot of all 151 of the neurons you mapped by playing Eyewire.
Want to learn more? Join us for a Science Hangout on Air with Sebastian and Jinseop to learn about our journey of discovery. EyeWire’s neuroscience team will be online and happy to answer your questions. Date and time TBA. Stay tuned!
Happy Day + Badges
To say thank you for helping us complete our Countdown, EyeWire would like to reward our players with a “Happy Day.” This day-long Happy Hour will award you with double points for 24 hours starting today at 1:30 PM ET.
We will be giving out special badges for anyone who played 100+ cubes during the Countdown to Neuropia, and superstar badges to anyone who played on 200+ cells during the Countdown. Join us after Happy Day tomorrow at 1:30 PM ET for our awards ceremony.
New Tools for Science
Neurons completed in EyeWire are piped over to Princeton, where Sebastian, Jinseop and the team analyze them, looking for things like synapses and classifying cell types. This is easier said than done. That’s why the lab at Princeton is creating the Seung Detector, a scientific tool for researchers to derive insights from the data EyeWire helps generate. The Seung Detector, which is being developed by Ignacio Tartavull, is software that will help scientists designate cell types using data, including a stratification profile (depth of cell branches within the retina).
We will be releasing a public Alpha version of this tool soon, which will act as a museum where you can view cells and circuits. More information will be coming shortly!
What’s Next
EyeWire’s Countdown to Neuropia is a quest to create the first complete catalog of cell types in the retina, thus revealing new insights as to how mammals perceive motion. We’re seeing several cells that no one has ever encountered. We want to be certain that these cells are true new types and not anomalies, so we’re going to map a series of Bonus Cells until we are confident that these unique cells are of a class of their own. After we finish the bonus round, a new challenge will be announced..
Stats Stats Stats!
Check out some of the countdown stats below: