Your brain is constantly relaying signals, whether you're reading an article, playing a game, or simply sleeping.
gif: Daniela Gamba, Seung Lab, Princeton University. Thanks to Tobias Navarro Schröder for advising on the propagation of neural signal waves across the brain.
Cosmos of Consciousness, Daniela Gamba
As recently as the late 1800s, the brain was thought to be one singular weblike structure; unrealized was the idea that it was made of single cells. Santiago Cajal first introduced the concept that the brain contains individual neurons, earning him a Nobel Prize and a place in the hearts of neuroscientists who study the realm he introduced: cellular neuroscience.
Daniela Gamba
As rivers they curve; as trees they branch. They bud like a flower with circuits aglow, growing in the breeze of thought.
It is difficult, if not impossible, to fully grasp how anything works without understanding its parts. For the past 130 years, neuroscience has seen a Cambrian explosion of fields and a subsequent manifestation of integrated study. One of these is connectomics.
Connectomics studies the network architecture and dynamics of neurons and other cells in the brain. At the micro scale, it generally integrates three areas:
functional activity (firing patterns of neurons)
structure
genetics
In general, to map neurons in the brain, the following sequence occurs.
Make sure you can see the neurons. Genetically engineer neurons to express proteins that make their activity visible under a microscope.
Record neurons doing their thing. Observe cells in the brain while an animal is doing something. Neuroscientists can now document activity from tens of thousands of cells at once.
Image sequential cross-sections of the same volume. To map synapses, the brain must be cut in sections and imaged in high resolution. Layer by layer, a 3D image dataset will emerge.
Reconstruct the connections among neurons. Using AI and human expertise, map the morphology of neurons to classify cells and catalog all the synapses (connections).
Model how the brain works. When you know which cells are firing when and the connections among them, you can begin to reverse engineer functional circuits in the brain.
Pyramidal neurons closeup. Anthony Hernandez from Seung Lab reconstructions
This is why we build brain mapping games. Citizen science turns the act of mapping neurons into a 3D puzzle. With no neuroscience experience, people around the world have learned to solve these puzzles, thus mapping neurons and advancing the field of connectomics. Ultimately, it brings us closer to understanding the brain.
This is uncharted territory. Citizen scientists in our first project, Eyewire, discovered 6 new types of neurons in the retina and reconstructed previously unknown circuits, potentially aiding the quest for cures to vision-related disorders. From the retina to the...
Cortex. Between 2020 and 2022, a new brain mapping game will invite the world to solve puzzles alongside cutting-edge AI to reconstruct about 100,000 neurons and find 1 billion synapses. We don't know what we will uncover, except that much of it will be new and novel. If you'd like to help, you can prepare for launch by playing Eyewire as neuron-mapping skills are transferable.
To learn more about the science of brain mapping or for a crash course in Neuroscience, check out the additional pages below. If you have questions, ideas, or other comments, you can reach us at support@eyewire.org.