Digital Museum of Retinal Ganglion Cells with Dense Anatomy and Physiology.

When 3D electron microscopy and calcium imaging are used to investigate the structure and function of neural circuits, the resulting datasets pose new challenges of visualization and interpretation. Here, we present a new kind of digital resource that encompasses almost 400 ganglion cells from a single patch of mouse retina. An online "museum" provides a 3D interactive view of each cell's anatomy, as well as graphs of its visual responses. The resource reveals two aspects of the retina's inner plexiform layer: an arbor segregation principle governing structure along the light axis and a density conservation principle governing structure in the tangential plane. Structure is related to visual function; ganglion cells with arbors near the layer of ganglion cell somas are more sustained in their visual responses on average. Our methods are potentially applicable to dense maps of neuronal anatomy and physiology in other parts of the nervous system.

Repurposing Citizen Science Games as Software Tools for Professional Scientists.

Scientific software is often developed with professional scientists in mind, resulting in complex tools with a steep learning curve. Citizen science games, however, are designed for citizen scientists- members of the general public. These games maintain scientific accuracy while placing design goals such as usability and enjoyment at the forefront. In this paper, we identify an emerging use of game-based technology, in the repurposing of citizen science games to be software tools for professional scientists in their work. We discuss our experience in two such repurposings: Foldit, a protein folding and design game, and Eyewire, a web-based 3D neuron reconstruction game. Based on this experience, we provide evidence that the software artifacts produced for citizen science can be useful for professional scientists, and provide an overview of key design principles we found to be useful in the process of repurposing.