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
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
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. 🖊️
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!
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
Took a break from worrying about funding to do some climbing in Squamish! (Elowen’s first multi-pitch)
July 19, 2025 at 4:15 PM
Took a break from worrying about funding to do some climbing in Squamish! (Elowen’s first multi-pitch)
Reposted by Michael Goard
A new study led by @timothysit.bsky.social reveals that different layers of mouse V1 integrate visual and non-visual signals differently.
Activity is dominated by vision (or spontaneous fluctuations) in L2/3 and by movement in L5. This leads to different geometries.
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
Activity is dominated by vision (or spontaneous fluctuations) in L2/3 and by movement in L5. This leads to different geometries.
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
July 18, 2025 at 4:55 PM
A new study led by @timothysit.bsky.social reveals that different layers of mouse V1 integrate visual and non-visual signals differently.
Activity is dominated by vision (or spontaneous fluctuations) in L2/3 and by movement in L5. This leads to different geometries.
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
Activity is dominated by vision (or spontaneous fluctuations) in L2/3 and by movement in L5. This leads to different geometries.
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
Reposted by Michael Goard
Can your AI beat a mouse?
Mice still outperform our best computing machines in some ways. One way is robust visual processing.
10 years ago I decided to work on HARD behavior driven by COMPLEX visual processing. And that risk is paying off now. #neuroAI 1/n
Mice still outperform our best computing machines in some ways. One way is robust visual processing.
10 years ago I decided to work on HARD behavior driven by COMPLEX visual processing. And that risk is paying off now. #neuroAI 1/n
July 10, 2025 at 12:22 PM
Can your AI beat a mouse?
Mice still outperform our best computing machines in some ways. One way is robust visual processing.
10 years ago I decided to work on HARD behavior driven by COMPLEX visual processing. And that risk is paying off now. #neuroAI 1/n
Mice still outperform our best computing machines in some ways. One way is robust visual processing.
10 years ago I decided to work on HARD behavior driven by COMPLEX visual processing. And that risk is paying off now. #neuroAI 1/n
Reposted by Michael Goard
The FY26 budget will devastate our innovation driven economy. A summary in 3 parts...
Part 1 - The White House vision for dismantling science, as described in one simple plot, means slashing budgets of NIH, NASA, NSF & going back 25 years (or more).
joshuasweitz.substack.com/p/the-white-...
Part 1 - The White House vision for dismantling science, as described in one simple plot, means slashing budgets of NIH, NASA, NSF & going back 25 years (or more).
joshuasweitz.substack.com/p/the-white-...
June 30, 2025 at 1:46 PM
The FY26 budget will devastate our innovation driven economy. A summary in 3 parts...
Part 1 - The White House vision for dismantling science, as described in one simple plot, means slashing budgets of NIH, NASA, NSF & going back 25 years (or more).
joshuasweitz.substack.com/p/the-white-...
Part 1 - The White House vision for dismantling science, as described in one simple plot, means slashing budgets of NIH, NASA, NSF & going back 25 years (or more).
joshuasweitz.substack.com/p/the-white-...
Very happy to see a Transmitter (@thetransmitter.bsky.social) piece on our recent work on estrous cycle modulation of hippocampal structure and function. Thanks to Sydney Wyatt (@sydneywyatt.bsky.social) for covering the work and its context:
www.thetransmitter.org/neuroendocri...
www.thetransmitter.org/neuroendocri...
Spatial learning circuitry fluctuates in step with estrous cycle in mice
Cyclic shifts in estradiol levels coincide with changes in dendritic spine density and the activity of place cells in the CA1 region of the hippocampus, a new study shows.
www.thetransmitter.org
June 25, 2025 at 2:13 PM
Very happy to see a Transmitter (@thetransmitter.bsky.social) piece on our recent work on estrous cycle modulation of hippocampal structure and function. Thanks to Sydney Wyatt (@sydneywyatt.bsky.social) for covering the work and its context:
www.thetransmitter.org/neuroendocri...
www.thetransmitter.org/neuroendocri...
Reposted by Michael Goard
Riddle: When is an "optical invariant" is not so invariant? How can you get a larger field-of-view for free? No change in resolution or scan speed. No more stitching needed! For #MicroscopyMonday here's a new preprint to check out. 1/9
June 16, 2025 at 5:57 PM
Riddle: When is an "optical invariant" is not so invariant? How can you get a larger field-of-view for free? No change in resolution or scan speed. No more stitching needed! For #MicroscopyMonday here's a new preprint to check out. 1/9
Reposted by Michael Goard
Now out in @natcomms.nature.com: Mice and monkeys spontaneously shift through comparable cognitive states - and it's written all over their faces! (1/7)
www.nature.com/articles/s41...
www.nature.com/articles/s41...
Inferring internal states across mice and monkeys using facial features - Nature Communications
Here, the authors created a virtual reality task for monkeys and mice to explore if internal states like attention are similar across species. Their facial expressions during the task were similar, su...
www.nature.com
June 10, 2025 at 11:21 AM
Now out in @natcomms.nature.com: Mice and monkeys spontaneously shift through comparable cognitive states - and it's written all over their faces! (1/7)
www.nature.com/articles/s41...
www.nature.com/articles/s41...
Reposted by Michael Goard
There are 2 previous historical cases of countries destroying their science and universities, crippling them for decades: Lysenkoism in the USSR and Nazi Germany. The Trump administration will be the 3rd.
It's not just budgets but research, institutions, expertise, and training the next generation.
It's not just budgets but research, institutions, expertise, and training the next generation.
May 31, 2025 at 4:43 AM
There are 2 previous historical cases of countries destroying their science and universities, crippling them for decades: Lysenkoism in the USSR and Nazi Germany. The Trump administration will be the 3rd.
It's not just budgets but research, institutions, expertise, and training the next generation.
It's not just budgets but research, institutions, expertise, and training the next generation.
Reposted by Michael Goard
We’re international students at Harvard. We’re afraid to write this. But we have to speak up. www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/202...
Opinion | We’re international students at Harvard. We’re afraid to write this. But we have to speak up.
Three student leaders on Trump’s attempts to throw them out of the country.
www.washingtonpost.com
May 28, 2025 at 12:10 AM
We’re international students at Harvard. We’re afraid to write this. But we have to speak up. www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/202...
Huge congrats, Will! Can't wait to see the work from your lab!
Very surprised (but very excited) to announce that I’ll be officially starting as an Assistant Professor at Johns Hopkins in the Electrical and Computer Engineering Department and as part of the new Data Science and AI Institute in July 2026!
May 27, 2025 at 5:55 PM
Huge congrats, Will! Can't wait to see the work from your lab!
Reposted by Michael Goard
Online now:
The estrous cycle modulates hippocampal spine dynamics, dendritic processing, and spatial coding
In this study, Wolcott et al. explore estrous-cycle modulation of hippocampal neuron structure and function. Using longitudinal two-photon imaging across the estrous cycle, they find significant modulation at the synaptic, cellular, and population levels.
dlvr.it
May 13, 2025 at 11:08 PM
Online now:
🚨Very excited to share a new paper from our lab in Neuron (@cp-neuron.bsky.social) on the influence of the estrous cycle on structural and functional plasticity in the hippocampus: www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...
Thread below 🧠🧪🧵:
Thread below 🧠🧪🧵:
The estrous cycle modulates hippocampal spine dynamics, dendritic processing, and spatial coding
Histological evidence suggests that the estrous cycle exerts a powerful influence on CA1 neurons in the mammalian hippocampus. Decades have passed sin…
www.sciencedirect.com
May 13, 2025 at 4:39 PM
🚨Very excited to share a new paper from our lab in Neuron (@cp-neuron.bsky.social) on the influence of the estrous cycle on structural and functional plasticity in the hippocampus: www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...
Thread below 🧠🧪🧵:
Thread below 🧠🧪🧵:
Reposted by Michael Goard
Join us in beautiful Santa Barbara! We're hiring a full-time junior specialist/research technician to play a central role in data collection & analysis of brain imaging studies of pregnancy & menopause.
Learn more & apply at: recruit.ap.ucsb.edu/JPF02974
Or help us spread the word 💫
Learn more & apply at: recruit.ap.ucsb.edu/JPF02974
Or help us spread the word 💫
May 12, 2025 at 5:13 PM
Join us in beautiful Santa Barbara! We're hiring a full-time junior specialist/research technician to play a central role in data collection & analysis of brain imaging studies of pregnancy & menopause.
Learn more & apply at: recruit.ap.ucsb.edu/JPF02974
Or help us spread the word 💫
Learn more & apply at: recruit.ap.ucsb.edu/JPF02974
Or help us spread the word 💫