Players of Mozak have experienced some game-shifting changes lately; most noticeably the change in navigation. While previously, you had to zoom in and out of a neuron using levels, waiting to load each view, now you are able to effortless explore a neuron - only loading an image stack once you?ve decided to trace a specific area. Our hope is that this will significantly improve gameplay and exploration. The next release is likely to include a brand new, significantly accelerated consensus for quicker, more accurate feedback.

The Mozak team has recently focused on finding new ways to significantly increase the speed and quality of reconstructions as well as make the process much more natural.

We identified lack of easily interactive high-resolution navigation and inspection as one of the key culprits. Mozak players should be able to look at entire volume at swift rates and figure exactly where more work needs to be done.

To achieve this we will be changing the top-level mechanic of the game. Soon gameplay will be centered around a big map with smooth real-time interaction across the entire neuron space. No more waiting for a new level to load.

Here’s a sneak peek at how the map will look like. Try interacting with it, zooming in and out, moving around. Notice that on the map we can see all details, figure out exactly where axons are connected, and see all faint dots that may need to be reconstructed. There is nothing in the entire volume that is not visible on this kind of map.

Stay tuned for the first release with this feature. Feel free to pop in with questions or comments here.

A journalist has reached out to us wanting to write a magazine article on Mozak players over 50. If you are over 50 and are willing to speak with a journalist about your motivation and experiences playing Mozak, please feel free to reach out to me at smortier@cs.washington.edu and I’ll connect you with them. Thanks and happy tracing!

Hi players, we released an update to the website and application that will allow you to view the gold standard reconstruction created from scientists at AIBS. Some of them have incorporated the work you have been doing! You can use these traces to get a better sense of the shape of each neuron and how the structure of axon differs from dendrite.

To view them, go to the web page for a particular neuron, there will be a section to view the most recent consensus reconstruction or gold standard if they are available. If a gold standard is available, there is a link to load it in the actual game.

Here are some gold standard traces currently up for viewing:

Mouse-V1-05

Mouse-V1-06

Mouse-V1-07

Mouse-V1-08

Mouse-V1-09

Mouse-V1-10

Mouse-V1-11

Mouse-V1-12

Mouse-V1-13

Mouse-V1-14

Mouse-V1-15

Mouse-V1-16

Mouse-V1-17

This list will be updated throughout the day as more results get posted.