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Publications

Angelo, Wudi, and Kevin’s paper on ‘Replay and representation dynamics in the hippocampus of freely flying bats’ is published today in Nature. Congratulations, Angelo, Wudi, and Kevin!!

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A Two-Dimensional Grid-Cell Code for Three-Dimensional Navigation in Freely Flying Bats

Kevin K Qi, Michael M Yartsev – bioRxiv 2026
doi:https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.64898/2026.06.10.728358v2

A Two-Dimensional Grid-Cell Code for Three-Dimensional Navigation in Freely Flying Bats |
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Motor Cortical Computations Underlying Natural Dexterous Movement in Freely Flying Bats

Boaz Styr*, Kevin K. Qi,  Xing Chen, William A. Liberti III and Michael M. Yartsev* – bioRxiv 2026
doi: https://doi.org/10.64898/2026.03.25.714017
* co-corresponding

Motor Cortical Computations Underlying Natural Dexterous Movement in Freely Flying Bats |
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Ultrafast Frame-Free Imaging of Neural Activity with Event Cameras

Angelo Forli†*, Krishna Chaitanya Kasuba†*, Katharine Henn, Deborah Lee, Miriam Hernández-Morales, Chunlei Liu, Evan Miller, and Michael M. Yartsev* (2026), Current Biology 36, R785-R786. DOI: 10.1016/j.cub.2026.05.069.
* Co-corresponding, † Equal Contribution
Previously on bioRxiv. DOI of preprint: https://doi.org/10.64898/2026.01.08.698496

Ultrafast Frame-Free Imaging of Neural Activity with Event Cameras |
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Natural behavior is what you do, not just where you are

Yartsev, M.M. Natural behavior is what you do, not just where you are. Nature Neuroscience (2026). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41593-026-02225-z

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illustration for Replay and representation dynamics
Replay and representation dynamics in the hippocampus of freely flying bats

Angelo Forli*, Wudi Fan*, Kevin K. Qi*, Michael M. Yartsev* (2025) Nature
doi: 10.1038/s41586-025-09341-z

* Co-corresponding

UC Berkeley News | Behind the Paper |
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Understanding the Neural Basis of Natural Intelligence

Angelo Forli & Michael M Yartsev (2024). Cell, 187 (21), P5833-5837.

Berkeley Neuroscience News |
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Role of auditory feedback for vocal production learning in the Egyptian fruit-bat

Julie E Elie, Sandra E Muroy, Daria Genzel, Tong Na, Lisa A Beyer, Donald L Swiderski, Yehoash Raphael & Michael M Yartsev (2024). Current Biology, 34 (17), P4062-4070.E7.

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Neural Representation of Human Experimenters in the Bat Hippocampus

Madeleine C. Snyder, Kevin K. Qi & Michael M. Yartsev (2024). Nature Neuroscience

Nature Briefing | The Transmitter | PsyPost |
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Vocal Learning-Associated Convergent Evolution in Mammalian Proteins and Regulatory Elements

Morgan E. Wirthlin^, Tobias A. Schmid^, Julie E. Elie^, Xiaomeng Zhang, Varvara A. Shvareva, Ashley Rakuljuc, Maria B. Ji, Ninad S. Bhat, Irene M. Kaplow, Daniel E. Schaffer, Alyssa J. Lawler, Siddharth Annaldasula, Byungkook Lim, Eiman Azim, Zoonomia Consortium, Wynn K. Meter, Michael M. Yartsev*, Andreas P. Pfenning* (2024). Science
doi: doi/10.1126/science.abn3263
^ co-first authors
* co-last & corresponding authors
Previously on bioRxiv. DOI of pre-print: 10.1101/2022.12.17.520895

UC Berkeley News |
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​Hippocampal Representation During Collective Spatial Behavior in Bats

Angelo Forli & Michael M. Yartsev (2023).
Nature doi.org/10.1038/s41586-023-06478-7

Nature Briefing | UC Berkeley News | Quanta Magazine |
Art_Natural behavior is the language of the brain
Natural behavior is the language of the brain

Cory T. Miller, David Gire, Kim Hoke, Alexander C. Huk, Darcy Kelley, David A. Leopold, Matthew C. Smear, Frederic Theunissen, Michael Yartsev, Cristopher M. Niell (2022). Current Biology, 32, R482-493.

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A Stable Hippocampal Code in Freely Flying Bats

William A. Liberti III*, Tobias A. Schmid*, Angelo Forli, Madeleine Snyder & Michael M. Yartsev  (2022). Nature  doi: 10.1038/s41586-022-04560-0

HWNI News | College of Engineering News |
Mean and Difference
A Unifying Mechanism Governing Inter-Brain Neural Relationship During Social Interactions

Wujie Zhang & Michael M. Yartsev  (2022). eLife; 11:e70493

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Cortical Representation of Group Social Communication in Bats

Maimon C. Rose*, Boaz Styr*, Tobias A. Schmid, Julie E. Elie & Michael M. Yartsev  (2021). Science 374 (eaba9548)

UC Berkeley News | Science Magazine Perspective | Aeon Assays on Collective Neuroscience | Scientific American |
Past Present Future
Nonlocal Spatiotemporal Representation in the Hippocampus of Freely Flying Bats

Nicholas M. Dotson & Michael M. Yartsev  (2021).
Science 373 (6551):242-247

New-York Stem Cell Foundation news | UC Berkeley News |
Flight Room
The Fully Automated Bat (FAB) Flight Room: A Human-Free Environment for Studying Navigation in Flying Bats and its Initial Application to the Retrosplenial Cortex

Daria Genzel & Michael M. Yartsev  (2021).
Journal of Neuroscience Methods.

A Modular Approach to Vocal Learning: Disentangling the Diversity of a Complex Behavioral Trait

Morgan Wirthlin, Edward F. Chang, Mirjam Knornschild, Leah A. Krubitzer, Claudio V. Mello, Cory T. Miller, Andreas R. Pfenning, Sonja C. Vernes, Ofer Tchernichovski & Michael M. Yartsev  (2019).
Neuron 104:87-99.

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Long-term and persistent vocal plasticity in adult bats

Daria Genzel, Janki Desai, Elana Paras and Michael M. Yartsev (2019). Nature Comm. 10:3372.

Correlated Neural Activity Across the Brains of Socially Interacting Bats

Wujie Zhang and Michael M. Yartsev (2019).
Cell 178(2):413-428.e22

PDF | UC Berkeley News | Cell Press News | Preview in Cell by Omer, Zilkha & Kimchi |
Evidence for hormonal control of heart regenerative capacity during endothermy acquisition

Kentaro Hiroshi,… Michael M. Yartsev,… Guo N. Huang (2019). Science 12;364(6436):184-188

A Hierarchical Anti-Hebbian Network Model for the Formation of Spatial Cells in Three-Dimensional Space

Karthik Soman, Srinivasa Chakravarthy and Michael M. Yartsev (2018). Nature Comm. 9(1):4046.
doi: 10.1038/s41467-018-06441-5.

Nonoscillatory phase-coding and synchronization in the bat hippocampal formation

Tamir Eliav, Maya Geva-Sagiv, Michael M. Yartsev, Arseny Finkelstein, Alon Rubin, Liora Las, Nachum Ulanovsky. (2018). Cell 175(4):1119-1130

Neuroethology of Bat Navigation

Daria Genzel, Yosef Yovel and Michael M. Yartsev (2018). Current Biology 28(17):R997-R1004

Mapping the Distribution of Language Related Genes FoxP1, FoxP2 and CntnaP2 in the Brains of Vocal Learning Bat Species

Pedro M. Rodenas-Cuadrado, Janine Mengede, Laura Baas, Paolo Devanna, Tobias A. Schmid, Michael Yartsev, Uwe Firzlaff and Sonja C.Vernes  (2018). Journal of Comparative Neurology 526(8):1235-1266.

The Emperor’s New Wardrobe: Rebalancing Diversity of Animal Models in Neuroscience Research

Michael Yartsev (2017). Science 358, 466-469

F1000Prime Recommended |
Causal contribution and dynamical encoding in the striatum during evidence accumulation

Michael M. Yartsev*, Timothy D Hanks*, Alice M Yoon, Carlos D Brody (2018). eLife

Encoding of head-direction by hippocampal place cells

Alon Rubin, Michael Yartsev & Nachum Ulanovsky (2014). Journal of Neuroscience, 34(3), 1067:1080

NatureReviews |
Space Bats: Multi-dimensional spatial representation in the bat

Michael Yartsev (2013). Science 342, 573-574

Eppendorf-Science Prize for Neurobiology |
Representation of three-dimensional space in the hippocampus of flying bats

Michael Yartsev & Nachum Ulanovsky (2013). Science 340, 367-372

F1000Prime Recommended | Science Perspective |
Reply to Models of grid cells and theta oscillations

Michael Yartsev, Menno Witter and Nachum Ulanovsky (2012). Nature 488, E2-E3

Grid cells without theta oscillations in the entorhinal cortex of bats

Michael Yartsev, Menno Witter and Nachum Ulanovsky (2011). Nature 479, 103-107

F1000 Prime Recommended | Nature News & Views | Current Biology Dispatch |
Distinct or gradually-changing spatial and non-spatial representations along the dorsoventral axis of the hippocampus

Michael Yartsev (2010). Journal of Neuroscience 30(23), 7758-7760

Pausing purkinje cells in the cerebellum of the awake cat

Michael Yartsev, Givon-Mayo Ronit, Michael Maller and Opher Donchin (2009).
Front. Syst.Neurosci 3(2),Doi :10.3389/neuro.06.002

Dissociating the effects of past and future on neural encoding of sequences in the hippocampus

Michael Yartsev (2008). Journal of Neuroscience 28(34), 8383-8384