PRINCETON, NEW JERSEY — More than a quarter million gamers have helped one of America's leading universities find out more about neurons.
The Princeton University Eyewire project by saw 265,000 gamers help map more than 3,000 neural cells into a digital museum, the institution wrote in a news release.
Researchers had players tracing out the structures from ganglion cells in a mouse's eye. Princeton research scholar Shang Mu said these cells are the connection between the retina and the brain. Gamers mapped this by coloring 10 million 3D cubes.
These cubes, according to Princeton University, are 4.5 microns across, meaning a 10-by-10 block is the width of a human hair. All mapped cells are verified by up to 25 other gamers, and once it's complete they're entered into the Eyewire museum.
