Michael Goard
@michaelgoard.bsky.social
Associate Professor of Neuroscience at UC Santa Barbara. I study neural circuits underlying sensation, decision making, and spatial navigation.
Reposted by Michael Goard
I’m very happy to share the latest from my lab published in @Nature
Hippocampal neurons that initially encode reward shift their tuning over the course of days to precede or predict reward.
Full text here:
rdcu.be/eY5nh
Hippocampal neurons that initially encode reward shift their tuning over the course of days to precede or predict reward.
Full text here:
rdcu.be/eY5nh
January 14, 2026 at 9:32 PM
I’m very happy to share the latest from my lab published in @Nature
Hippocampal neurons that initially encode reward shift their tuning over the course of days to precede or predict reward.
Full text here:
rdcu.be/eY5nh
Hippocampal neurons that initially encode reward shift their tuning over the course of days to precede or predict reward.
Full text here:
rdcu.be/eY5nh
Reposted by Michael Goard
📣 Our lab is hiring a full-time RA/lab manager! Join us in beautiful Santa Barbara to study the neural bases of affect-cognition interactions using fMRI and brain stimulation. Great stepping stone to a PhD in cognitive/affective neuro 🧠🐬🏖️ Apply by Jan 22: recruit.ap.ucsb.edu/JPF03048
Junior Specialist - Lapate Laboratory, Department of Psychological & Brain Sciences
University of California Santa Barbara is hiring. Apply now!
recruit.ap.ucsb.edu
January 13, 2026 at 10:23 PM
📣 Our lab is hiring a full-time RA/lab manager! Join us in beautiful Santa Barbara to study the neural bases of affect-cognition interactions using fMRI and brain stimulation. Great stepping stone to a PhD in cognitive/affective neuro 🧠🐬🏖️ Apply by Jan 22: recruit.ap.ucsb.edu/JPF03048
(this size microknife is very useful for making incisions prior to implanting larger prisms - 1mm or larger)
January 8, 2026 at 5:35 PM
(this size microknife is very useful for making incisions prior to implanting larger prisms - 1mm or larger)
Researchers using microprisms: I am planning to place a custom order from FST for 1.5 mm wide diamond knives with a 30 deg point (similiar to finescience.com/en-US/diamon... but with a 1.5mm wide blade), but there is a minimum lot number. Anyone else interested in purchasing one? Let me know!
January 8, 2026 at 5:35 PM
Researchers using microprisms: I am planning to place a custom order from FST for 1.5 mm wide diamond knives with a 30 deg point (similiar to finescience.com/en-US/diamon... but with a 1.5mm wide blade), but there is a minimum lot number. Anyone else interested in purchasing one? Let me know!
Reposted by Michael Goard
What is the computational role of dendritic excitations? Byung Hun Lee and team mapped voltage dynamics throughout the dendritic trees of CA1 pyramidal neurons in mice navigating in virtual reality. www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...
January 4, 2026 at 6:17 AM
What is the computational role of dendritic excitations? Byung Hun Lee and team mapped voltage dynamics throughout the dendritic trees of CA1 pyramidal neurons in mice navigating in virtual reality. www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...
Reposted by Michael Goard
Want to track the dynamics of estrogen in the brain across long periods of time? New paper as part of very fun collab with team UCLA Ed Van Veen and Steph Correa! We use a specialized optical reporter and show that this is possible and actually very easy! www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...
www.biorxiv.org
December 16, 2025 at 8:52 PM
Want to track the dynamics of estrogen in the brain across long periods of time? New paper as part of very fun collab with team UCLA Ed Van Veen and Steph Correa! We use a specialized optical reporter and show that this is possible and actually very easy! www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...
Reposted by Michael Goard
Our lab is hoping to hire a long-term lab manager / research associate to help with admin tasks and neuroscience experiments (3-year minimum commitment). bilh.wd1.myworkdayjobs.com/External/job...
Research Associate
When you join the growing BILH team, you're not just taking a job, you’re making a difference in people’s lives. The Andermann lab consists of a vibrant and diverse group of 20 scientists (undergradua...
bilh.wd1.myworkdayjobs.com
December 8, 2025 at 8:28 PM
Our lab is hoping to hire a long-term lab manager / research associate to help with admin tasks and neuroscience experiments (3-year minimum commitment). bilh.wd1.myworkdayjobs.com/External/job...
Reposted by Michael Goard
Excited to share my first PhD preprint!
“How human aging disrupts the head direction network: evidence from VR experiments and mechanistic models”
We investigated why our sense of direction becomes less stable as we age.
Preprint: www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
1/ thread 🧵
“How human aging disrupts the head direction network: evidence from VR experiments and mechanistic models”
We investigated why our sense of direction becomes less stable as we age.
Preprint: www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
1/ thread 🧵
December 1, 2025 at 10:50 AM
Excited to share my first PhD preprint!
“How human aging disrupts the head direction network: evidence from VR experiments and mechanistic models”
We investigated why our sense of direction becomes less stable as we age.
Preprint: www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
1/ thread 🧵
“How human aging disrupts the head direction network: evidence from VR experiments and mechanistic models”
We investigated why our sense of direction becomes less stable as we age.
Preprint: www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
1/ thread 🧵
Reposted by Michael Goard
Hearing a rumor that NIH/HHS may now plan to retaliate against other Bethesda Declaration signers.
I am one, but it’s not about me: we have been speaking out because of the ongoing damage to US medical research, cancer and Alzheimer’s research.
As @jenna-m-norton.bsky.social put well: 1/
I am one, but it’s not about me: we have been speaking out because of the ongoing damage to US medical research, cancer and Alzheimer’s research.
As @jenna-m-norton.bsky.social put well: 1/
November 14, 2025 at 4:17 PM
Hearing a rumor that NIH/HHS may now plan to retaliate against other Bethesda Declaration signers.
I am one, but it’s not about me: we have been speaking out because of the ongoing damage to US medical research, cancer and Alzheimer’s research.
As @jenna-m-norton.bsky.social put well: 1/
I am one, but it’s not about me: we have been speaking out because of the ongoing damage to US medical research, cancer and Alzheimer’s research.
As @jenna-m-norton.bsky.social put well: 1/
Reposted by Michael Goard
Thrilled to share our new paper, out now in @natneuro.nature.com, uncovering how estradiol, the most potent estrogen, modulates reinforcement learning and reward prediction errors across biological levels. www.nature.com/articles/s41...
#blueprint 1/7
#blueprint 1/7
Estrogen modulates reward prediction errors and reinforcement learning - Nature Neuroscience
Dopamine encoding of reward prediction errors naturally fluctuates over females’ reproductive cycles with estrogenic signaling due to reduced expression of dopamine reuptake proteins.
www.nature.com
November 11, 2025 at 2:41 PM
Thrilled to share our new paper, out now in @natneuro.nature.com, uncovering how estradiol, the most potent estrogen, modulates reinforcement learning and reward prediction errors across biological levels. www.nature.com/articles/s41...
#blueprint 1/7
#blueprint 1/7
Reposted by Michael Goard
Six of the nine Nobel Prize winners this year work in the U.S.
Three of the six were born outside the U.S., which is the pattern most years. No country has benefited more from welcoming immigrants from around the world.
www.nobelprize.org
Three of the six were born outside the U.S., which is the pattern most years. No country has benefited more from welcoming immigrants from around the world.
www.nobelprize.org
The official website of the Nobel Prize - NobelPrize.org
The Nobel Prize rewards science, humanism and peace efforts. This is one of the central concepts in the will of Alfred Nobel, and it also permeates the outreach activities that have been developed for...
www.nobelprize.org
October 8, 2025 at 12:37 PM
Six of the nine Nobel Prize winners this year work in the U.S.
Three of the six were born outside the U.S., which is the pattern most years. No country has benefited more from welcoming immigrants from around the world.
www.nobelprize.org
Three of the six were born outside the U.S., which is the pattern most years. No country has benefited more from welcoming immigrants from around the world.
www.nobelprize.org
That's the one with cornflakes and whiskey, right? Good stuff!
October 7, 2025 at 8:54 PM
That's the one with cornflakes and whiskey, right? Good stuff!
Reposted by Michael Goard
Exciting news: #UCSB physicists John Martinis and Michel Devoret have been awarded the 2025 #NobelPrize in Physics. They were lauded for work that, according to the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences, "revealed quantum physics in action."
Full story: https://ow.ly/TH7K50X7ULp
Full story: https://ow.ly/TH7K50X7ULp
UCSB physics professors John Martinis and Michel Devoret win 2025 Nobel Prize in Physics
UCSB physics professors John Martinis and Michel Devoret win 2025 Nobel Prize in Physics
ow.ly
October 7, 2025 at 4:30 PM
Exciting news: #UCSB physicists John Martinis and Michel Devoret have been awarded the 2025 #NobelPrize in Physics. They were lauded for work that, according to the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences, "revealed quantum physics in action."
Full story: https://ow.ly/TH7K50X7ULp
Full story: https://ow.ly/TH7K50X7ULp
Reposted by Michael Goard
With the power of the people behind it, the California legislature just passed the Menopause Care Equity Act. This is history in the making—finally addressing a health gap that touches millions of women. Now, it’s down to one signature. @governor.ca.gov, the pen is in your hand. 🖊️
September 26, 2025 at 1:04 PM
With the power of the people behind it, the California legislature just passed the Menopause Care Equity Act. This is history in the making—finally addressing a health gap that touches millions of women. Now, it’s down to one signature. @governor.ca.gov, the pen is in your hand. 🖊️
The sad thing was that it almost always worked.
September 17, 2025 at 3:35 AM
The sad thing was that it almost always worked.
Reposted by Michael Goard
🧠✨ Women in Neuroscience History: The Pioneers Who Changed Everything
Incredible stories of 11 women who revolutionized brain science, often against impossible odds. Meet trailblazers of sleep research, memory science, neuroplasticity, and neurosurgery — from Maria Manasseina to May-Britt Moser 🧠
Incredible stories of 11 women who revolutionized brain science, often against impossible odds. Meet trailblazers of sleep research, memory science, neuroplasticity, and neurosurgery — from Maria Manasseina to May-Britt Moser 🧠
September 16, 2025 at 8:28 PM
🧠✨ Women in Neuroscience History: The Pioneers Who Changed Everything
Incredible stories of 11 women who revolutionized brain science, often against impossible odds. Meet trailblazers of sleep research, memory science, neuroplasticity, and neurosurgery — from Maria Manasseina to May-Britt Moser 🧠
Incredible stories of 11 women who revolutionized brain science, often against impossible odds. Meet trailblazers of sleep research, memory science, neuroplasticity, and neurosurgery — from Maria Manasseina to May-Britt Moser 🧠
Reposted by Michael Goard
Thrilled to share that our work is now published in Science! ✨
We found a preference for visual objects in the mouse spatial navigation system where they dynamically refine head-direction coding. In short, objects boost our inner compass! 🧭
www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...
🧵1/
We found a preference for visual objects in the mouse spatial navigation system where they dynamically refine head-direction coding. In short, objects boost our inner compass! 🧭
www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...
🧵1/
September 11, 2025 at 8:14 PM
Thrilled to share that our work is now published in Science! ✨
We found a preference for visual objects in the mouse spatial navigation system where they dynamically refine head-direction coding. In short, objects boost our inner compass! 🧭
www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...
🧵1/
We found a preference for visual objects in the mouse spatial navigation system where they dynamically refine head-direction coding. In short, objects boost our inner compass! 🧭
www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...
🧵1/
Reposted by Michael Goard
Following up: searching for the distribution of estrogen receptors in the brain, I realized the Allen Brain Atlas is male only. How is it possible that something this fundamental is still missing?
It's 2025, and there's apparently no female mouse atlas.
Please, tell me I'm wrong.
Please, tell me I'm wrong.
September 8, 2025 at 1:51 PM
Following up: searching for the distribution of estrogen receptors in the brain, I realized the Allen Brain Atlas is male only. How is it possible that something this fundamental is still missing?
Reposted by Michael Goard
I still get chills
Meet Mike
*30+ years severe depression
*first hospitalized @ 13y
*20 meds
*3 rounds of ECT
*2 near-fatal suicide attempts
Mike felt joy for the first time in decades after we turned on his new brain pacemaker or PACE
see videos, read paper, follow thread
doi.org/10.31234/osf...
Meet Mike
*30+ years severe depression
*first hospitalized @ 13y
*20 meds
*3 rounds of ECT
*2 near-fatal suicide attempts
Mike felt joy for the first time in decades after we turned on his new brain pacemaker or PACE
see videos, read paper, follow thread
doi.org/10.31234/osf...
August 10, 2025 at 6:23 PM
I still get chills
Meet Mike
*30+ years severe depression
*first hospitalized @ 13y
*20 meds
*3 rounds of ECT
*2 near-fatal suicide attempts
Mike felt joy for the first time in decades after we turned on his new brain pacemaker or PACE
see videos, read paper, follow thread
doi.org/10.31234/osf...
Meet Mike
*30+ years severe depression
*first hospitalized @ 13y
*20 meds
*3 rounds of ECT
*2 near-fatal suicide attempts
Mike felt joy for the first time in decades after we turned on his new brain pacemaker or PACE
see videos, read paper, follow thread
doi.org/10.31234/osf...
Reposted by Michael Goard
Our latest profile just dropped! Dr. Emily Jacobs (@emilyjacobs.bsky.social) studies how hormonal fluctuations influence the brain. Follow the link below to listen to the full interview!
www.storiesofwin.org/profiles/202...
#WomenInNeuroscience #StoriesOfWiN
www.storiesofwin.org/profiles/202...
#WomenInNeuroscience #StoriesOfWiN
Dr. Emily Jacobs — Stories of WiN
studies how hormonal fluctuations influence the brain
www.storiesofwin.org
August 6, 2025 at 4:23 PM
Our latest profile just dropped! Dr. Emily Jacobs (@emilyjacobs.bsky.social) studies how hormonal fluctuations influence the brain. Follow the link below to listen to the full interview!
www.storiesofwin.org/profiles/202...
#WomenInNeuroscience #StoriesOfWiN
www.storiesofwin.org/profiles/202...
#WomenInNeuroscience #StoriesOfWiN
Reposted by Michael Goard
Excited to announce that my lab has moved to UC Berkeley Dept of Neuroscience and Dept of Statistics! I will be continuing to collaborate with colleagues and students in TX at UT Austin and Baylor College of Medicine, and will start new collabs in the Bay. Will be taking new grad students this fall!
August 4, 2025 at 6:40 PM
Excited to announce that my lab has moved to UC Berkeley Dept of Neuroscience and Dept of Statistics! I will be continuing to collaborate with colleagues and students in TX at UT Austin and Baylor College of Medicine, and will start new collabs in the Bay. Will be taking new grad students this fall!
It seems like neuroscience PI pairs have consistently outboxed their weight class, not sure why we discourage it so much.
August 2, 2025 at 2:57 PM
It seems like neuroscience PI pairs have consistently outboxed their weight class, not sure why we discourage it so much.
A student in my lab recently received an NOA for an F31 (submitted August '24), so they are still going through, perhaps a bit more slowly than usual. I suspect a 9% score would very likely be funded - fingers crossed and congrats to your student either way.
July 23, 2025 at 9:29 PM
A student in my lab recently received an NOA for an F31 (submitted August '24), so they are still going through, perhaps a bit more slowly than usual. I suspect a 9% score would very likely be funded - fingers crossed and congrats to your student either way.
Reposted by Michael Goard
I’m excited to share my final co-first author paper from my postdoc in Dan Dombeck's lab!
We explored how behavior, senses, and neurons influence how much information in the brain changes over time.
www.nature.com/articles/s41...
#science #research #neuroscience #hippocampus #placecells
We explored how behavior, senses, and neurons influence how much information in the brain changes over time.
www.nature.com/articles/s41...
#science #research #neuroscience #hippocampus #placecells
Hippocampal representations drift in stable multisensory environments - Nature
Tracking of individual place cells in mouse CA1 shows that representational drift is not influenced by changes in environment or behaviour, and is lower for more excitable place cells.
www.nature.com
July 23, 2025 at 4:12 PM
I’m excited to share my final co-first author paper from my postdoc in Dan Dombeck's lab!
We explored how behavior, senses, and neurons influence how much information in the brain changes over time.
www.nature.com/articles/s41...
#science #research #neuroscience #hippocampus #placecells
We explored how behavior, senses, and neurons influence how much information in the brain changes over time.
www.nature.com/articles/s41...
#science #research #neuroscience #hippocampus #placecells