EDIT 14/07/2015: opening this very page is enough for solving the rat brain part of Recycling puzzle. No evil Flash Player things are needed (just noticed a thread right now)

In the previous puzzle 8 people voted for "I really wait for some puzzle about the anatomy of the rat brain". And I have not voted, especially not 8 times. So everything below is their fault.

Edit: some people say they find the puzzle pretty solvable, and chances are that some of them are not actual neuroscientists. I do not know if they are from the 8 or not.


As you probably all know, the Waxholm Space atlas of the Sprague Dawley rat brain, the first open access atlas for any kind of rat brain is already available for some time (INCF). Besides the raw data, there are online and offline (this one is brand new) viewers for the MRI, DTI volumes and the actual segmentation (practically: color coding for the different brain regions).
There is also a set of meshes for the segmentation, however they are not released yet.

This detail allows creating a boring and tedious novel and exciting puzzle. A page contains a viewer with the meshes, just the name of the structures have been replaced by a number and a character. There are things which are preserved however: the colour of the structures (so everything uses the same colour in all 3 viewers), and their alphabetical order. Like "alveus of the hippocampus" is 01 and "ventricular system" is 80 (this one is not an actual brain structure anyway, but a set of cavities filled with cerebrospinal fluid). The middle one happens to be "inner ear", number 40 (this is not brain at all, just the canals were nicely visible on the MRI). So the numbers are simply preserving the alphabetical order, and the character next to them is used for building 5-letter codes.

For example if someone wrote here "medial lemniscus decussation", "habenular commissure", "commissural stria terminalis", "nucleus of the stria medullaris", "ascending fibers of the facial nerve", the solution would be 45, 35, 12, 49, 05, and the letters next to them could form a giveaway code. These are some of the smallest structures in this segmentation, rather impractical to find anyway.

Finding the largest 10 structures should not be painful though: "neocortex", "molecular layer of the cerebellum", "granule cell level of the cerebellum", "brainstem", "corpus callosum and associated subcortical white matter", "spinal trigeminal tract", "basal forebrain region", "striatum", "olfactory bulb", "glomerular layer of the olfactory bulb"

Here are some less random structures, all of them are visible in the initial slice: "perirhinal area 36", "perirhinal area 35", "fasciculus retroflexus", "dentate gyrus", "lateral entorhinal cortex", "cornu ammonis 2", "mammillothalamic tract", "substantia nigra", "descending corticofugal pathways", "commissure of the superior colliculus"

Some from slicing the brain horizontally (so the initial slice has to be rotated by 90 degrees): "fornix", "presubiculum", "fimbria of the hippocampus", "septal region", "genu of the facial nerve", "bed nucleus of the stria terminalis", "stria terminalis", "middle cerebellar peduncle", "optic tract and optic chiasm", "anterior commissure, posterior part"

Then something from the front: "optic nerve" (its continuation has been used already, then comes) "supraoptic decussation", the middle: "thalamus", and from the back: "central canal", "periventricular gray"

The GA-s are running for a pretty long time. Even the ones saying "1 week left" in my profile now, were saying "2 weeks left" yesterday, so 13 days are left for even those.
Have fun, it is not that terrible.


Users guide:

The slicing tools start in MRI view, the droplist in the top-left corner allows switching to DTI and segmentation. In segmentation view the structure under the mouse cursor is going to be displayed at the bottom of the window. This applies to the main view, which shows a rectangular slice of the brain at arbitrary postion and orientation (and size). The other three views show an overview of the entire brain in perpendicular planes, and the rectangle representing the main view is drawn over them.
All views support dragging: the main view moves in its current plane, the other three either rotates the main view in their plane (drag almost anywhere), or moves the main view in their plane (drag the dot in the middle, becomes yellow).
The online viewer requires Flash and it is slow.
The offline viewer requires 3GB of memory, and in case of 32-bit Windows, the 4GT option has to be enabled.

The mesh viewer is even simpler to use, dragging results in rotation, and the structures can be switched on(checkmark)/off(x)/transparent(empty) individually (or all at once with "Set All"). Transparency is set by the first numerical stepper (starts at 50%). There is support for cutting too, so it is possible to set up similar views in both kind of viewers.
The mesh viewer requires Flash. It also requires hardware support for Shader Model 2 (DirectX9), which should not be a real issue. If it is (software rendering with super slow operation, cutting results in hollow view), Chrome may still help (it uses OpenGL, even on Windows). Funny thing is that debug Windows builds (like the Windows 10 preview) support a full software implementation of DirectX, resulting in extremely slow, but visually perfect operation on whatever old hardware.


Hint0 is just a summary to make things less scary: more than half of the structures (43 out of 80) are mentioned above. 8 of them are fully specified.
Hint1: if I were going to solve this puzzle, I would create an Excel (or whatever) sheet with 80 numbered lines, put the fully specified 8 structures into their position, order the rest of the named structures alphabetically in a different column, and roughly position them between the already known ones. Then start experimenting with the viewers.

Obvious enabler hint: so far every single example in my puzzles was an actual giveaway.


Solution

The mesh generator tool along with a pack of meshes have been released on INCF. Online viewer of the set (with real names) is also available here
OHJJe80hGbtfY15xRg3wCPOFr3PySzmd2jZp9hMd is the sequence of all characters encoded above.

  • OHJJe: the example GA, Knights of Pen and Paper +1 Edition. This GA had the description what to do with the coordinates appearing in the 'real' GA-s.
  • 80hGb: a Screencheat, also linking a Gauntlet in its description
  • tfY15: another Screencheat, linking to a Gauntlet, but only for the sake of reflecting the previous one. That Gauntlet was a SG Group one, and the link described how to join the group if necessary.
  • xRg3w: Brütal Legend
  • CPOFr: Crusader Kings II, bundled with Magicka
  • 3PySz: Gauntlet
  • md2jZ: Mass Effect 2
  • p9hMd: Remember Me

After finding any 3 of the giveaways (not counting the OHJJe example here), one could apply the method described in the example, and enter an Alien: Isolation giveaway.

Random screenshot below:

View attached image.
8 years ago*

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Reserved for whatever

8 years ago
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Bump

8 years ago
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Bump again

8 years ago
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Another self-bump

8 years ago
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Bump after a day

8 years ago
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Bump after 2 silent days

8 years ago
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Bump for solved

8 years ago
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Wow, another really unique puzzle from tevemadar! I can't wait to get started.

8 years ago
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I am not very sure if it is a funny puzzle...
But you may find Gauntlet on the way ;-)

8 years ago
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25 identified so far. I'm having some fun along the way. :)

8 years ago
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This sensation again... A cold shiver down my spine, goosebumps, pure fear... Another tevemadar's puzzle :O

8 years ago
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oh my... I thought I´d seen puzzles, but boy was I wrong...

8 years ago
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Bump for fully solved! I'm a visual thinker so I really enjoyed this puzzle.

8 years ago
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Congratulations :-) I was hoping that gamers will not have problems with operating the tools.

8 years ago
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Bump for fully solved as well! Entered every giveaway I could, just to make sure I didn't miss any..

Though I have to admit I'm disappointed.. I expected Bad Rats :-P

Thanks for this great adventure!

8 years ago
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Congratulations for you too :-)

And sorry for the disappointment

8 years ago
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Awwww shizzz. This one is really up my alley. Ima start crackin' it once I got the time!

(Wondering whether you actually do murine work IRL too? This seems highly... technical)

8 years ago
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No, the segmentation was made by my girlfriend, and even she has not worked with the rat "himself" (the rat was a male).
I coded the viewers, and the converter for creating meshes. I am a software engineer.
(But yes, we work in research, and there are people around us who do actual rat experiments)

8 years ago*
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Still only partially solved, my wife must have been wondering last night why I was sitting staring at dissected rat brains.

8 years ago*
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Bump for 5th solved.

8 years ago*
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Bump for number 6.

8 years ago
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Deleted

This comment was deleted 4 years ago.

8 years ago
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I see what you did there

8 years ago
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Yay! Bump for partially solved!

8 years ago
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Yay! Bump for fully solved!

I have to admit that all this thing is a bit scary at first, but once you are in, it is pretty enjoyable :)
Thanks for your different and interesting puzzles Tevemadar :3 (You have to know that I have a folder with your name with all your puzzles)

8 years ago
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That is nice, thank you

8 years ago
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Bump for solved! Very nice puzzle :P

8 years ago
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Not a neuroscientist, but this was one of the most fun puzzles I've done so far, so gonna give it another bump saying other people should try it! The prize at the end of the road is definitely worth it!

8 years ago
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Bump for 24 hours without bumps.

8 years ago
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Is the color important? Is it still possible to solve if you're colorblind?

8 years ago
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You can still solve it by looking at shapes, but it will be more difficult. Another option (how I solved it) is to compare colors using the color picker in Paint and looking at the RGB values.

8 years ago
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Hi, the atlas has been created with a tool called ITK Snap. It is open source, and apparently uses a fixed color table by default, link, but the text inside says "some randomized colors". So I think it does not follow any of the colorblind-aware schemes.
The puzzle is about recognizing 3D "objects" by browsing 2D slices of them. The 3D part is toggleable, so neighboring structures can be told apart for sure. However, in the 2D slices there can be borders with unfriendly color combinations. If you move the mouse cursor over the atlas slice, and the label display changes without crossing a "visible" border, then yes, there is a problem.
If you happen to have a nice palette with 81 RGB entries, I can create an other version of the puzzle next week (this week I am on vacation and I could not do the necessary coding on a tablet).

8 years ago
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Alright, I'm about to start crackin' this one.

Bump so others will suffer too.

8 years ago
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It is not that hard kukeemon, you know that :P This is the easiest of Tevemadar's puzzles until now :) (and the coolest!)
Also bump

8 years ago
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I'm back on the case. Damn you perrolijo! Always ahead of me in solving!

Also, bump.

8 years ago
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Still have a few left to solve. Is it possible to ask for a hint for any specific ones? Got a few that once nailed down should complete the puzzle, most notably in the S-range.

8 years ago
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The first GA-s end on Wednesday, so there is plenty of time left. Feel free to ask, however I will not be able to answer until Monday (I am on vacation and have limited net access). Others may still come to the rescue, I can not now.

8 years ago
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If I'm getting desperate by Tuesday, I'll start preparing my pleading eyes. But enjoy your weekend until then. :)

View attached image.
8 years ago
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I am back in action.
Some things about 's'

  • 12 structures have a name starting with 's' (this may be a hint)
  • 6 of them are used in the puzzle (this is not really a hint, they can be counted)
  • out of the 12, the first one and the last one are used in the puzzle (this may be a hint;

    their names happen to be 'septal region' and 'supraoptic decussation', but that is not really a new thing - I assume everyone solving the puzzle has a table containing the mentioned structures in alphabetical order)

8 years ago
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Bumped for solved :)

8 years ago
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Bump for an interesting and unique puzzle! Don't be scared off by all of the text in the topic description: this is tevemadar's easiest puzzle to date, in my opinion. if you can read a map, you can complete this puzzle.

And check out the fabulous prizes shown in the random screenshot! It pains me to say that because I really, really want to win Gauntlet. :)

8 years ago
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No worries, I will remove the screenshot when the non-bundled GA-s reach 5-6 entries (or just time out as it may happen to the Screencheats)
Also the puzzle is novel and exciting from now :-D

8 years ago
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Bump for more participants.

This really isn't as hard as it looks at first fellas!

8 years ago*
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I do believe I have solved the entire thing.

Bump for an epic masterpiece puzzle. Get to it, folks.

8 years ago
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I've been at this for several hours now, still got 3 (I think) to go.

8 years ago
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All solved, finally!

8 years ago
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Bump for all 12 found.

8 years ago
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12? I only found 10. Eight are given in the clues above (including the example clue), one more as an example for a secondary puzzle, and the tenth as the solution to that secondary puzzle. What am I missing? (Based on the screenshot, it's probably two Gauntlet giveaways, but I don't see where I might have overlooked the two final clues in the puzzle...)

8 years ago
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I guess you're not following all clues. :)

8 years ago
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Hi, I see you have succeeded already (sorry, I just noticed this post right now)

8 years ago
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Why so few people? This puzzle is way easier than it seems (and way easier than any ITH puzzle :P)

8 years ago
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Maybe people just don't like rats :/

But I would have thought the oppossite, with all that fascination about bad rats in Steamgifts.

8 years ago
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Do not fear the wall of text, adventurers! This puzzle is as easy and fun as it gets, and oh boy, THE PRIZE...

View attached image.
8 years ago
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Come on fellas... it's quite easy. Just hover over parts in one page and find the same thing on another.
There are some GA's in here with only 2 or 3 entries, and those aren't bad games.

View attached image.
8 years ago
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At 5+ entries on all now at least. But this really deserves some love. :)

8 years ago
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