What sort of cell is that anyway?

Ever wonder what sort of cell you’re tracing? Sometimes we’re not even sure!  Usually we’ve got an idea of what type of cell we’re asking you to trace.  Sometimes though we’re not sure, or we’re not able to tell until the cell has started to take shape.  How do we tell what type of cell it is?  We look at the characteristics of the cell.  Is it asymmetric, does it list to one side, do the branches all stay in one plane?  


Pretty interesting stuff, right?

I’m attaching some papers that have some great images of cell morphology.  Take a gander at the images, and take a look at some of our active cells , see if you can pick out which cells are which.  Especially the Input to J#1, we’re still trying to figure out what type it is!

p.s. you don’t need to slog through the whole of both papers, the pictures and diagrams themselves are quite useful!

I talked to @a5hm0r right now - we agree and are a 100% sure:


Mystic Cell #1 is a typical RFWMAC… Really Flat Wavy Monostratified Amacrine Cell :stuck_out_tongue:

I have a question about J-cell #5. It appears to have a quite different morphology, with a high degree of bi-stratification. What kind of J-cell is it? A type of ooDSGC?

Right, it turned out to not be a J cell.
Indeed, On-Off direction selective ganglion cell is a good guess.
If I recall correctly, its dendrites are biased towards the superior direction.
(That’s not visible in EyeWire, unfortunately.)
So it might be a BD cell.  Check out this paper:
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/21613488

Here’s the open access version of the paper:
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3108146/

Thanks for the update and the article. It’s nice to try to educate ourselves a bit so we don’t bug you with questions all the time. Thanks, Rebecca

We like questions though!  Any luck getting through the paper?

Paper was great. I’m a sucker for structure/function discussions. Interesting to understand a bit more about the methods of data collection too.

Here’s an interesting structure of a type I have not seen before. I wonder what it does? 

Sorry, image didn’t upload in previous message.Found this structure, different looking than what I have seen before. I wonder what it does.

What is this? tks

Hey mstanley, 


I looked up the cube and it looks like a starburst challenge segment. If you don’t mind me asking are you unsure about which piece is correct in the cube or are you asking about the whole cell?

Cheers, 
Aleks 

Aleks, after I closed my mouth when I saw the light blue one show up, (color me astounded that clicking on a little piece made a Whole neuron) I right clicked it because I didn’t think you all wanted it in the cube for a submit.

So, should I have left it for a submit or erased it? And if other ones show up, should I keep them or erase them?

I should have clarified when I submitted the question, sorry. I can claim age related issue as in getting tired. My Grannie did & it worked for her…lol Thanks for answering.

Hey mstanley, 


No worries lol, if an incorrect chunk like the light blue one shows up then yes erase it like you did. Sometimes little pieces can be merged into bigger branches and in the future if the branches don’t belong just take the piece out. 

Good job getting rid of it! Feel free to let us know if you come across any other cubes you aren’t sure of.

Cheers, 
Aleks 

Hello Aleks, oh, well, that would be all of them…lol…

.I did acrylic paintings before my cataract surgery, and filling in the blanks (when I had a blank canvas, the blank spots would just be there for me. About all I had to do was color them in :slight_smile: …so it’s kind of a habit. Though, I do believe you all don’t want All the blanks filled in. Figured that one out from the tutorials. Good things those tutorials. :slight_smile:

I’m working on figuring out what doesn’t belong where. Perseverance and patience is in order until accuracy becomes a reality. :frowning: But hopefully, the little pieces I do find will be a stepping stone for someone else to build on and get a much better snap shot. I’m big on team work. :)…

You all are doing something really good. Glad to help. later m

Hi mstanley, 


Acrylic painting sounds very cool. I’m not a painter myself but I do enjoy it every once in a while and have always planned on trying acrylics, perhaps I will soon. 

The more you play the easier it will be to tell what should be filled in and what is incorrect. If you are stuck on anything feel free to email us or post it here and we will be happy to help!

Cheers, 
Aleks