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Michael Goard

@michaelgoard.bsky.social
409 followers 250 following 60 posts

Associate Professor of Neuroscience at UC Santa Barbara. I study neural circuits underlying sensation, decision making, and spatial navigation.

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Reposted by Michael Goard
Regina Lapate @lapate.bsky.social · 05/10/2026
We’re hiring a BIC Director—come join us at UCSB! 🧠🏖️ The Psych & Brain Sciences Dept. at UCSB is hiring a Brain Imaging Center Director. Apply to Job Number JPF03164 on the UCSB UC Recruit portal (recruit.ap.ucsb.edu/JPF03164) by November 1, 2026. UCSB is an Equal Opportunity Employer.
recruit.ap.ucsb.edu
Brain Imaging Center Director, Department of Psychological & Brain Sciences
University of California Santa Barbara is hiring. Apply now!
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neurosock @neurosock.bsky.social · 01/10/2026
Mix. selectivity is everywhere in cortex: from vis. to PFC This paper relates to Cover's theorem but the typical explainer kind of sucks I'll try to explain how the theory relates to the paper, and the importance of "weird" neurons A🧵with my toy model and notes: #neuroskyence #compneuro #NeuroAI
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Michael Goard @michaelgoard.bsky.social · 09/09/2026
Since I don't have grants to cheer about, I'm instead celebrating a successful ascent of half dome with my daughter last weekend. It was a brutal day - 4am wake up + 18 miles of hiking + 2000' of technical climbing - but the epic views at the top made it well worth it!
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Michael Goard @michaelgoard.bsky.social · 19/08/2026
Important paper for 2P imagers. Also a good reminder that 1P imaging scopes (which have axial resolutions >20um) will generally not accurately measure responses from single neurons.
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Dan Feldman @danfeldman.bsky.social · 31/07/2026
The Neuroscience Department at UC Berkeley is hiring an Asst Professor in Computational Neuro. All areas of computational/theoretical neuro are welcome. Deadline Oct 30. Join our neuroscience community! aprecruit.berkeley.edu/JPF05446 #AcademicJobs #Neuroscience #NeuroJobs
aprecruit.berkeley.edu
Assistant Professor - Computational Neuroscience - Department of Neuroscience
University of California, Berkeley is hiring. Apply now!
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Michael Goard @michaelgoard.bsky.social · 24/07/2026
Does replay (like place cells) follow the champagne rule, where non-hippocampal consolidation is just ‘sparkling repetition’?
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Matthias Nau @matthiasnau.bsky.social · 16/07/2026
Thrilled to share our new #preprint, and super proud of @zednud.bsky.social and our work on eye–brain dynamics during eyes-closed rest and sleep! Also excited to share that Zach started his PhD with me recently! 🎉 Lots of ideas and cool work ahead. Follow him on Bluesky and check out his thread! 🧵
Zach
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Michael Goard @michaelgoard.bsky.social · 13/07/2026
New review on ecological visual processing. Really enjoyed writing this as part of a longstanding collaboration with @crisniell.bsky.social, @mbeyeler.bsky.social, and @spencerlaveresmith.bsky.social
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Cris Niell @crisniell.bsky.social · 13/07/2026
The latest result from a fun ongoing collaboration! @mbeyeler.bsky.social @michaelgoard.bsky.social @spencerlaveresmith.bsky.social
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Spencer LaVere Smith @spencerlaveresmith.bsky.social · 13/07/2026
Ecological Visual Processing in the Mouse - with @michaelgoard.bsky.social @crisniell.bsky.social @mbeyeler.bsky.social Visual computations that are engaged in ecological contexts: active sensing, motion processing, scene analysis, distance estimation, and spatial perception. doi.org/10.1146/annu...
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Michael Goard @michaelgoard.bsky.social · 10/07/2026
Lab hike off Lake Louise to close out iNav
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Michael Goard @michaelgoard.bsky.social · 06/07/2026
Managed to sneak in some pre-iNav rock climbing…
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Michael Goard @michaelgoard.bsky.social · 05/07/2026
Arrived in Banff for iNav a little early, not disappointed…
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Mark Histed @markhisted.org · 02/07/2026
It is sad that Scott Atlas doesn’t understand basic economics. Paul Samuelson wrote about public goods—why NIH has been such a stunning success—more than 75 yrs ago. Also, to see why Atlas urges ending US success, just look at who elevates him: pro-privatization billionaires. 1/
Clown shoes pro-oligarchy pablum, supported by far-right billionaires — a Hoover fellow, brought in by Trump 1 to blame others for COVID, arranged doubt via billionaire-funded AIER, and now writes in the Bezos Post.
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Michael Goard @michaelgoard.bsky.social · 26/06/2026
Beautiful morning in Machu Picchu to cap off a six-day trek through the Andes…
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Michael Goard @michaelgoard.bsky.social · 20/06/2026
Very nicely done Radiolab episode featuring @emilyjacobs.bsky.social and team’s work. Check it out! radiolab.org/podcast/this...
radiolab.org
This is Your Brain on Hormones
We don’t have hormones, hormones have us.
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Spencer LaVere Smith @spencerlaveresmith.bsky.social · 13/06/2026
Labrigger Catechism for 2p calcium imaging 1. Get enough photons/s/cell. About 1000 - 10,000 photons/s/cell can be enough. 2. Make sure that your neuron signals are not completely swamped by neuropil. labrigger.com/blog/2026/06... (1/3)
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Hugo Spiers @hugospiers.bsky.social · 04/06/2026
Hillscape cells: Hippocampal place cells map terrain geometry independently of behavior #neuroskyence @roddy-grieves.bsky.social Eleonore Duvelle and Jeff Taube: www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...
science.org
Hippocampal place cells map terrain geometry independently of behavior
Place cells map terrain geometry, not behavior, revealing a surface-based brain code for real-world navigation.
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Peter Rupprecht @ptrrupprecht.bsky.social · 19/05/2026
In this new blog post, I review some several recent studies on dendritic voltage and calcium imaging in hippocampus: gcamp6f.com/2026/05/19/d... Great work by @bhlee1117.bsky.social, Xiang Wu, @adamezracohen.bsky.social, Attila Losonczy, Balazs Rosza, Kevin Gonzalez, and others!
gcamp6f.com
Dendritic imaging of pyramidal neurons in mouse hippocampus
Dendrites are the tree-like arborizations of neurons through which they receive input from other neurons. This compartmentalized anatomy has given rise to the idea that individual dendrites process…
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Michael Goard @michaelgoard.bsky.social · 20/05/2026
In celebration of World Bee Day, I wanted to recommend the Secrets of the Bees, a new 2-part doc that uses innovative camera work (exec produced by James Cameron) to get some really incredible shots of bee behavior (waggle dance, hornet mobbing, and more): www.scientificamerican.com/article/tita...
scientificamerican.com
Titanic and Avatar director James Cameron explains why bees are his latest fixation
James Cameron tells Scientific American how his latest documentary, Secrets of the Bees, reveals an intimate view of the inside of a beehive
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Michael Goard @michaelgoard.bsky.social · 19/05/2026
"New imaging study finds the brain region responsible for fMRI skepticism"
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Rafiq Huda @brainsonmymind.bsky.social · 12/05/2026
Incredibly excited to share the latest published work from the lab: www.science.org/doi/10.1126/.... Using a range of techniques, including closed-loop optogenetics, we show that the ACC modulates pupil linked arousal in real time. Great summary of our findings here: scienceblog.com/your-brain-h...
science.org
The anterior cingulate cortex modulates pupil-linked arousal
The anterior cingulate cortex modulates pupil-linked arousal in real time.
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Liisa Galea @liisagalea.bsky.social · 11/05/2026
In Beautiful Hawaii for @ossdcomm.bsky.social premeeting on women’s health! Up next is @emilyjacobs.bsky.social for our keynote on the Unchartered Mind: New Frontiers in Women’s Health.
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Michael Goard @michaelgoard.bsky.social · 02/05/2026
For prisms, we first make an incision with a diamond microknife and soak with gel foam. Once the site is clear we slowly lower the prism with a manual manipulator (old school style) while flushing with saline. We have a pretty high success rate. Email or message if you want more details.
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Simon Hammann @simonhammann.bsky.social · 20/04/2026
Don't be shy to take on a little two-week side project. These five months will be the most precious three years of your academic journey.
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Michael Goard @michaelgoard.bsky.social · 28/04/2026
On the other hand, since this is being accomplished via administrative reshuffling of multi-year funding programs, the decimation of American science is saving the tax payer a whopping (checks notes)… $0.
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Will Redman @wtredman.bsky.social · 28/04/2026
New preprint out 🚨 “Predictive pursuit emerges in high-dimensional recurrent neural networks”! This was an awesome collaboration with co-first author @fatihdinc.bsky.social , @andyalexander.bsky.social, @xiaoxiao-lin.bsky.social, and May Chen biorxiv.org/content/10.6... 1/
biorxiv.org
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andy alexander @andyalexander.bsky.social · 28/04/2026
Very excited to announce the first preprint from the lab @ucsantabarbara.bsky.social -- "Predictive pursuit emerges in high-dimensional RNNs." @wtredman.bsky.social (starting his own group at JHU this fall) summarizes the work nicely in this thread.
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Dr. Becca @docbecca.bsky.social · 19/04/2026
Those of us doing research related to women’s health have been hit particularly hard by the govt’s sabotage of the NIH. I spoke to WaPo for this piece, as painful as it was to discuss the reality my lab is facing. www.washingtonpost.com/science/2026...
washingtonpost.com
Where U.S. science has been hit hardest after Trump’s first year
The Trump administration has slashed the number of grants from the National Institutes of Health, with far fewer focused on women, cancer and mental health.
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Katrin Franke @katrinfranke.bsky.social · 31/03/2026
New paper out in @cp-neuron.bsky.social 🎉 What determines contextual modulation in V1? Why does the visual surround sometimes facilitate and sometimes suppress a neuron's response to its preferred stimulus?
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Nora Newcombe @noranewcombe.bsky.social · 02/04/2026
This book has just been published, open access, edited by Ken Cheng and me. It contains multiple chapters originating in a wonderful Strungmann Forum held in Frankfurt around a year ago. link.springer.com/book/10.1007...
link.springer.com
Challenges in Navigation Research
This open access book explores navigation across species using a multidisciplinary approach to address challenges in research and clinical applications.
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Emily A. Aery Jones @emilyaeryjones.bsky.social · 01/04/2026
My main postdoc work is now published: www.nature.com/articles/s41...! We (myself, Isabel Low, Frances Cho, and @lgiocomo.bsky.social) discovered task-relevant remote representations in entorhinal cortex independent of CA1. #paperthread below! 1/13
nature.com
Entorhinal cortex represents task-relevant remote locations independently of CA1 - Nature Neuroscience
Neurons in medial entorhinal cortex collectively represent discrete nonlocal positions during immobility. During this nonlocal coding, CA1 is uncoupled from entorhinal cortex. These representations ar...
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Filip Tomaska @filip-tomaska.bsky.social · 25/03/2026
Hey everyone! 
Do you remember this post from your fav blogger? labrigger.com/blog/2025/11... 
Not super easy to use - I know. Well, spring break has sprung here at ucsb and we decided to bring that activation energy down a notch.
 I guess welcome to my first bsky thread? letsgo (1/5)
labrigger.com
Snappy looking calcium imaging videos – Labrigger
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Michael Beyeler @mbeyeler.bsky.social · 25/03/2026
New @annualreviews.bsky.social #neuroscience article 👁️🧠: bionicvisionlab.org/publications... w/ @crisniell.bsky.social, @michaelgoard.bsky.social, @spencerlaveresmith.bsky.social Grateful to be part of this collaboration & learn from such a sharp group while rethinking vision in natural settings!
bionicvisionlab.org
Ecological visual processing in the mouse | Bionic Vision Lab
We review computations that are engaged in ecological contexts, including active sensing, motion processing, scene analysis, distance estimation, and spatial perception.
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Michael Goard @michaelgoard.bsky.social · 24/03/2026
Amazing work by my mother-in-law Jo Ellen Jacobs and colleagues to uncover the true origins of On Liberty
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Michael Goard @michaelgoard.bsky.social · 13/03/2026
A San Francisco institution. Started by Robert Oppenheimer’s brother Frank after he lost his professorship in physics due to his “communist sympathies”…
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Mark Histed @markhisted.org · 12/03/2026
Fabulous keynote session at @cosynemeeting.bsky.social. @neurokim.bsky.social and I kicked off the meeting and introduced Chris Olah. m.youtube.com/watch?v=koGy...
m.youtube.com
Cosyne 2026 - Session 1: Opening Remarks
YouTube video by Cosyne Talks
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andy alexander @andyalexander.bsky.social · 12/03/2026
Come check out our poster "[2-018] Predictive pursuit emerges in high dimensions" Friday from 1-4p if you are at #cosyne2016! This work was led (and is presented) by the amazing @wtredman.bsky.social alongside an awesome team incld. @xiaoxiao-lin.bsky.social, @fatihdinc.bsky.social, and May Chan.
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Mark Histed @markhisted.org · 09/03/2026
The most impt change at #NIH and to US science this year is bigger than grant cancellations— it’s how the agency is governed. For 75 years NIH has been largely independent of presidential control. That’s changed this year. New piece from me and @nataliebaviles.bsky.social in @nature.com 🧪
nature.com
How Congress can restore the independence of US science
Members must go beyond reinstating US government research spending and re-establish decentralized governance at the National Institutes of Health and other agencies.
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Michael Goard @michaelgoard.bsky.social · 06/03/2026
I am just arguing that finding particular cases of stable responses does not dispute the existence of drifting representations for other neurons/variables, for which there is now strong evidence from multiple labs.
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Michael Goard @michaelgoard.bsky.social · 06/03/2026
yes, I completely agree that some neurons represent some information in an incredibly stable manner (e.g., M1 neurons during a well-learned motor task, HVC neurons during singing, PoS neurons for HD, and V1 neurons for orientation).
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Michael Goard @michaelgoard.bsky.social · 05/03/2026
Also, I know it's fun to proclaim that representational drift is fake news every time someone finds a stable response somewhere in the brain, but for those who have actually done careful longitudinal recordings, many (not all) neurons clearly change their responses over time.
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Michael Goard @michaelgoard.bsky.social · 05/03/2026
As a result, we suspect the same neurons can exhibit different levels of stability to different stimuli based on network connectivity (as opposed to stimulus complexity/dimensionality). Just a hunch at this point, but seems plausible enough. More in this paper: www.nature.com/articles/s41...
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Michael Goard @michaelgoard.bsky.social · 05/03/2026
Compare this to neurons responding to natural movies, where neurons active at a particular point in the movie might be responding to completely different aspects of the stimulus (spatial frequency, motion energy, etc), and are thus less likely to reinforce their mutual tuning to that time point.
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Michael Goard @michaelgoard.bsky.social · 05/03/2026
Late to this conversation, but our interpretation of stimulus-dependence of drift is that neurons in networks of highly connected iso-tuned neurons (e.g., orientation tuned neurons in visual cortex, HD cells in PoS) will tend to reinforce each others tuning and maintain stable responses.
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Spencer LaVere Smith @spencerlaveresmith.bsky.social · 27/02/2026
Two-photon calcium imaging at 24,000 lines/s, with the resonant axis spanning 4x what other systems can do. Inertia-free. Diffraction-limited. No tradeoffs. Che-Hang Yu developed a 4x angle multiplier for laser scanning. His paper is out today: opg.optica.org/optica/fullt... 1/n #fluorescenceFriday
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Carsen Stringer @computingnature.bsky.social · 12/02/2026
🔬🧠 Releasing the 1.0 version of #Suite2p and THE PAPER w/ @marius10p.bsky.social! Now with GPU acceleration. Want to use Suite2p but don’t have 100,000 neuron recordings? We show you how to get those with a standard 2p microscope #neuroscience #imaging #neuroAI www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...
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Adrien Peyrache @apeyrache.bsky.social · 11/02/2026
New paper alert! 🚨 We found that the brain's compass is remarkably stable at two scales 1️⃣ the system maintains its internal organization for weeks 2️⃣ It "remembers" its orientation for weeks, even after a single visit This may be key to how the brain aligns its other maps. Paper: rdcu.be/e3waP
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The Transmitter @thetransmitter.bsky.social · 21/01/2026
When a brain researcher solved a logistical problem by going rogue, the idea proved remarkably infectious. By @lyrebard.bsky.social #neuroskyence www.thetransmitter.org/brain-imagin...
thetransmitter.org
A brief history of precision self-scanning
When a researcher solved a logistical problem by going rogue, the idea proved remarkably infectious.
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