Happy Halloween, Mozak Community! We?ve a gourd-gous challenge for you this fine spooky season. Mozak and Janelia?s MouseLight lab have teamed up to provide the first ever full-brain dataset available for citizen scientists to reconstruct! This is an unprecedented leap forward for neuronal reconstruction and citizen science. As players learn to navigate, discover, and trace, we will use the findings to work toward the ultimate goal of a full-brain reconstruction. These neurons are longer, meaner, and trickier than ever before and will allow us to discover brand new types of neurons!

Gameplay Logistics

This dataset is 100x bigger than the typical one-neuron challenges you?re used to. Navigation has therefore changed and you?ll find that there is no 2D map to explore, only 3D depths. The easiest way to navigate to a specific region is to select an existing node first, which will load the volume around that node. Currently, we still only support tracing of a single neuron, however that will change in the future. It might be trickier this time since there is more signal from other neurons, so keep an eye out! Starting a trace in the middle of nowhere is no longer viable, because it’s not clear whether that trace connects to the neuron we aim to reconstruct, therefore starting at the soma is a must. You?ll likely find that Connect-the-Dots3D is the most useful tool for this type of challenge, but please let us know your thoughts!