Continuing our series of primary visual cortex neurons from mice, we are pleased to introduce another challenge for our community: Mouse-V1-07. Did you know in mice, the primary visual cortex is used for the detection of both increments and decrements in contrast as well as changes in orientation? There?s a study on it you can read here.

Happy Holidays from the Mozak team. We would like to remind everyone that here at Mozak headquarters (the University of Washington), we are officially on holiday next Monday, December 26, and will be out of the office observing New Year?s Day on Monday, January 2.

During this time we will be primarily be monitoring Mozak and responding to emergency issues. Additionally, you can likely expect additional delays in response time during the week of December 26 - December 30.

We hope you enjoy the upcoming holiday season, stay safe, and of course, remind you to be sure and trace those neurons as completely as you can.

Did you notice the newest challenge? This neuron continues our series of visiting the mouse primary visual cortex. Note, we have turned down the contrast for this screenshot, and find it may help you as well. Get started now.

Today we’re delighted to introduce a brand new feature called “hotspots”.

When you click the flame icon in-game, regions of the neuron we call hotspots are specially highlighted, to direct you to regions that we think contain important reconstruction work. Currently, these hotspots are regions that other reconstructors have done work in but that we aren’t sure enough about to make part of the consensus reconstruction.

Give it a try today, and be sure to post your feedback on our forums.