Michael Goard
Associate Professor of Neuroscience at UC Santa Barbara. I study neural circuits underlying sensation, decision making, and spatial navigation.
- Reposted by Michael GoardWhen 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...
- Reposted by Michael GoardI’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
- 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
- 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 GoardWhat 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 GoardWant 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...
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- Reposted by Michael GoardExcited 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 🧵
- Reposted by Michael GoardHearing 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/
- Reposted by Michael GoardThrilled 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
- Reposted by Michael GoardSix 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
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- Reposted by Michael GoardThrilled 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/
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- Reposted by Michael GoardI 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...
- Reposted by Michael GoardOur 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
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- Reposted by Michael GoardI’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
- Took a break from worrying about funding to do some climbing in Squamish! (Elowen’s first multi-pitch)
- Reposted by Michael GoardA 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...
- Reposted by Michael GoardCan 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
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- 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...
- Reposted by Michael GoardRiddle: 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 GoardNow 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...
- Reposted by Michael GoardThere 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.
- Reposted by Michael GoardWe’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!
- Reposted by Michael GoardOnline 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 🧠🧪🧵:
- 1/8: Building on classic work (e.g., Woolley et al., J Neurosci, 1990), we used longitudinal two-photon imaging across the estrous cycle in transgenic mice in order to measure spine morphology, dendritic integration, and population activity in CA1 neurons.
- Reposted by Michael GoardJoin 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 💫
- Reposted by Michael Goard🚨New paper from the Epp and Sargin Labs!🚨 We identified early sex- and region-specific impairments to parvalbumin interneurons (PV-INs) during Alzheimer’s Disease (AD) pathogenesis www.science.org/doi/10.1126/... Simplified highlights below: 🧵/15
- Reposted by Michael Goard🚨new paper alert Blind mice use stereo olfaction, comparing smells between nostrils, to maintain a stable sense of direction. Blocking this ability disrupts their internal compass. Kudos to @kasumbisa.bsky.social! Another cool chapter of the Trenholm-Peyrache collab😉 www.nature.com/articles/s41...
- Reposted by Michael GoardPublished an op-ed for @cnn.com: “Nobel laureate: I owe America my success. Today, its scientific future is in danger.” A personal reflection on what’s at stake as science funding gets slashed. I’d be grateful if you could amplify both in and beyond the science world. www.cnn.com/2025/04/09/h...
- Reposted by Michael GoardOur latest study identifies a specific cell type and receptor essential for psilocybin’s long-lasting neural and behavioral effects 🍄🔬🧠🧪 Led by Ling-Xiao Shao and @ItsClaraLiao Funded by @NIH @NIMHgov 📄 Read in @nature.com - www.nature.com/articles/s41... 1/12
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- New "version of record" of our article on the effect of robust within-module grid cell variability on spatial coding in @elife.bsky.social. Check out @wtredman.bsky.social's explainer thread below:
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- Reposted by Michael GoardNeuropixels and Optogenetics are delighted to announce the birth of Neuropixels Opto Combining high-resolution electrophysiology and optogenetics Today in bioRxiv 960 sites, 28 emitters, 2 colors By Lakunina, @karolinazsocha.bsky.social, Ladd, et al www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1... (1/2)
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- Early morning panel on Spatial Perception, Memory, and Navigation today @ 7:30am in the Pyramid Peak room! #wcbr
- Reposted by Michael GoardThe antidote for despair is action ❤️ * Dial (202) 224-3121 * Enter zip code * Leave voicemail * Say “My name is ___, I’m a constituent in [town]. (If clinician/scientist, say so) “The NIH freeze harms research and patients and must be lifted immediately.” Be brief. Staffers tally all calls. Go! ✅
- Reposted by Michael GoardWikipedia is one of the last major bastions of verified information. Which, of course, is why the oligarchs want to destroy it. You can donate to them here. donate.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?...
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- Reposted by Michael GoardHappy head direction cell day y’all! On this day, 41 years ago, Jim Ranck recorded the first “HD cell” in his Brooklyn lab in 1984. Jim shared the news with the world at SFN that year, showing a video of the cell’s firing on a TV he somehow acquired and brought to his poster… (1/3)
- Proud papa moment: Elowen finished her first year of bouldering competition with 2nd place in the Region (Southern California, Nevada, Utah, and Hawaii). So cool to see her improvement over the last year!
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- Very interesting thread, though sadly an excellent example of Brandolini’s law
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