About

Michael Yartsev is a professor of neuroscience and bioengineering at UC Berkeley and a Howard Hughes Medical Institute Investigator. His laboratory has developed new technologies to record brain activity in freely flying bats, providing unprecedented insights into the neural mechanisms underlying natural behaviors such as socializing and communication. His research aims to uncover the fundamental principles of how the brain generates adaptive behavior in realistic settings, contributing to our understanding of neural processes in naturalistic environments.

Research topics

• Computer Science
• Neuroscience
• Biology
• Artificial Intelligence
• Psychology
• Social psychology
• Epistemology
• Communication
• Cognitive psychology
• Cognitive science
• Anatomy
• Evolutionary biology

Selected publications

• Motor Cortical Computations Underlying Natural Dexterous Movement in Freely Flying Bats

  bioRxiv (Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory) · 2026-03-25

  articleOpen accessSenior author

  Elucidating the neural computations underlying natural, complex movement remains a fundamental challenge in neuroscience. Bat flight presents a formidable motor control challenge, requiring the use of hand-like wings whose many degrees of freedom must be precisely coordinated to enable rapid three-dimensional maneuvers. Here we performed large-scale wireless recordings of neuronal ensembles from the wing motor cortex of freely flying bats using Neuropixels probes, alongside detailed 3D pose tracking of wing kinematics. Despite the complexity of flight control, bats repeatedly executed highly accurate flights through precise adjustments of individual wingbeats. Surprisingly, motor cortical activity was not dominated by the global wingbeat cycle. Instead, individual neurons were sparsely active, exhibiting mixed selectivity for specific flight kinematics combined with variable entrainment to the wingbeat phase reaching millisecond-scale precision. This yielded a high-dimensional population regime driven by low shared variance across wingbeats, with successive wingbeats occupying distinct neural population states. Our findings reveal that during complex natural behavior the mammalian motor cortex operates in a high-dimensional computational regime that challenges prevailing views of motor cortical computation and underscores the importance of studying ethologically relevant behaviors to uncover neural principles governing brain function.

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• Ultrafast Frame-Free Imaging of Neural Activity with Event Cameras

  bioRxiv (Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory) · 2026-01-09

  articleOpen accessSenior authorCorresponding

  Abstract Frame-based fluorescence imaging has long defined how neural activity is optically measured. This approach requires acquiring all pixels within an image, regardless of whether they carry meaningful neural dynamics, thereby intrinsically coupling spatial and temporal resolution while increasing data output. Here, we introduce an entirely different, frame-free approach that leverages the sparse nature of neural activity using event-based cameras, which asynchronously report fluorescence changes as spatiotemporal events. Compared with a frame-based camera, our method preserves signal fidelity while eliminating the fixed trade-off between spatial resolution, temporal resolution and data rate, thereby reducing data output by orders of magnitude. Applied to hippocampal preparations we demonstrate that the frame-free approach can resolve both single action potentials and fast network dynamics over large fields of view at kilohertz rates, enabling scalable, ultrafast optical recordings.

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• Replay and representation dynamics in the hippocampus of freely flying bats

  Nature · 2025-07-09 · 8 citations

  articleOpen accessSenior author

  . However, whether and how these phenomena generalize across species with distinct navigational demands and neurophysiological properties remains unclear. Here we wirelessly recorded neural activity from large populations of cells and local field potentials from the hippocampus of freely flying Egyptian fruit bats (Rousettus aegyptiacus) engaged in free, spontaneous foraging behaviour. During rest, we identified time-compressed forward and reverse replays of multiple flight trajectories coinciding with sharp-wave ripples. Notably, replays occurred predominantly at locations that were both spatially and temporally distant from the replayed behaviour, and their speed scaled with trajectory length, challenging present models of replay mechanisms. During flight, neural ensembles exhibited fast representational sweeps, in which the decoded location moved ahead of the bat's position cyclically. In contrast to reports in rodents, sweeps occurred in the absence of theta oscillations, and were instead phase locked to a prominent motor behavioural rhythm-the bat's wing-beat cycle. This suggests that behaviourally relevant sensorimotor rhythms can interact with hippocampal ensemble dynamics in a highly structured manner. Combined, our findings challenge existing models of ensemble dynamics in the mammalian hippocampus, and highlight the importance of comparative studies in ethologically relevant conditions for elucidating brain function.

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• Neural representation of human experimenters in the bat hippocampus

  Nature Neuroscience · 2024-07-02 · 13 citations

  articleOpen accessSenior author

  Here we conducted wireless electrophysiological recording of hippocampal neurons from Egyptian fruit bats in the presence of human experimenters. In flying bats, many neurons modulated their activity depending on the identity of the human at the landing target. In stationary bats, many neurons carried significant spatial information about the position and identity of humans traversing the environment. Our results reveal that hippocampal activity is robustly modulated by the presence, movement and identity of human experimenters.

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• Role of auditory feedback for vocal production learning in the Egyptian fruit bat

  Current Biology · 2024-09-01 · 4 citations

  articleOpen accessSenior author
  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• Understanding the neural basis of natural intelligence

  Cell · 2024-10-01 · 5 citations

  articleSenior author
  PublisherDOI

• Vocal learning–associated convergent evolution in mammalian proteins and regulatory elements

  Science · 2024-02-29 · 34 citations

  articleOpen accessCorresponding

  Vocal production learning (“vocal learning”) is a convergently evolved trait in vertebrates. To identify brain genomic elements associated with mammalian vocal learning, we integrated genomic, anatomical, and neurophysiological data from the Egyptian fruit bat ( Rousettus aegyptiacus ) with analyses of the genomes of 215 placental mammals. First, we identified a set of proteins evolving more slowly in vocal learners. Then, we discovered a vocal motor cortical region in the Egyptian fruit bat, an emergent vocal learner, and leveraged that knowledge to identify active cis-regulatory elements in the motor cortex of vocal learners. Machine learning methods applied to motor cortex open chromatin revealed 50 enhancers robustly associated with vocal learning whose activity tended to be lower in vocal learners. Our research implicates convergent losses of motor cortex regulatory elements in mammalian vocal learning evolution.

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• Role of auditory feedback for vocal production learning in the Egyptian fruit-bat

  bioRxiv (Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory) · 2023-11-21

  preprintOpen accessSenior authorCorresponding

  Summary Some species have evolved the ability to use the sense of hearing to modify existing vocalizations, or even create new ones. This ability corresponds to various forms of vocal production learning that are all possessed by humans, and independently displayed by distantly related vertebrates. Among mammals, a few species, including the Egyptian fruit-bat, would possess such vocal production learning abilities. Yet the necessity of an intact auditory system for the development of the Egyptian fruit-bat typical vocal repertoire has not been tested. Furthermore, a systematic causal examination of learned and innate aspects of the entire repertoire has never been performed in any vocal learner. Here we addressed these gaps by eliminating pups’ sense of hearing at birth and assessing its effects on vocal production in adulthood. The deafening treatment enabled us to both causally test these bats vocal learning ability and discern learned from innate aspects of their vocalizations. Leveraging wireless individual audio recordings from freely interacting adults, we show that a subset of the Egyptian fruit-bat vocal repertoire necessitates auditory feedback. Intriguingly, these affected vocalizations belong to different acoustic groups in the vocal repertoire of males and females. These findings open the possibilities for targeted studies of the mammalian neural circuits that enable sexually dimorphic forms of vocal learning.

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• Clinical and immunological characteristic of children with recurrent episodes of acute laryngotracheitis, acute respiratory infections, otorhinolaryngological deseases

  Allergology and Immunology in Pediatrics · 2023-07-17

  articleOpen accessSenior author

  Introduction . Researching on pathogenesis and immunopathogenesis of acute respiratory infections in conjunction with recurrent episodes of acute laryngotracheitis and otorhinolaringological diseases (tonsillopharyngitis, rhinosinusitis, otitis) — is a high priority task for pediatrics, what is necessary to do to create an approach for preventing chronic illnesses. The aim of the present work . Researching on clinical and immunological characteristics and efficiency of treatment with prescription of bacterial lysate (OM-85) for children with recurrent episodes of acute laryngotracheitis, acute respiratory infections (ARI), otorhinolaringological diseases. Materials and methods . Fifty children 3-9 years old (32 children 3-6 years, 18 children 7-9 years old; 32 boys, 28 girls) in the initial period of monitoring, with recurrent episodes of acute laryngotracheitis (ALT), acute respiratory infections (ARI), otorhinolaryngological diseases were examined. The treatment in according with pediatric clinical practice guidelines, consultations with a pediatrician, otorhinolaryngologist, allergologist were provided to all children. Twenty five children (subgroup I b) received bacterial lysate (OM-85, 4 courses in 3 years ) in complex treatment. Subgroups I a, I b were similar in clinical symptoms, gender and age related. Follow up period continued three years. The results were evaluated a year and three years after treatment. Experimental group was composed of 30 children 3-9 years old, additionally examined. This group had such characteristics as: frequency of acute respiratory infections 3-5 times in a year, absence of chronic respiratory diseases, of recurrent episodes of acute laryngotracheitis. Immunological survey included some parameters of innate immunity, serum immunoglobulins, chemiluminescence, interferons (IFN-alfa, IFN-gamma). Results . In children with repeated episodes of ALT and ARI and otorhinolaryngological diseases the expression of TLR2 and TLR4 on CD14 + cells, receptors for IFN-γ (CD14 + CD119 + ) is significantly higher than in children without ALT and with a frequency of ARI 3-5 times a year, which is accompanied by a decrease in the level of IFN-γ and IFN-α and is associated with the development of dysregulation of the immune system, which decreases with the administration of bacterial lysate (OM-86). Complex treatment of children within 3 years with the prescription of the drug significantly reduces the frequency of ARI — 2.6 times, tonsillopharyngitis — 1.8 times, rhinosinusitis — 2.2 times, the need for the prescription of antibiotics — 2.2 times. In the group treated by standards after 3 years, the need for antibiotics decreased by 1.6 times, the frequency of ARI exacerbations — by 1.2 times, tonsillopharyngitis — by 1.5 times, rhinosinusitis — by 1.8 times.

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• Hippocampal representation during collective spatial behaviour in bats

  Nature · 2023-08-30 · 57 citations

  articleOpen accessSenior author

  yet its study is lacking in such dynamic group settings, which are ubiquitous in natural environments. Here we studied hippocampal activity in groups of bats engaged in collective spatial behaviour. We find that, under spontaneous conditions, a robust spatial structure emerges at the group level whereby behaviour is anchored to specific locations, movement patterns and individual social preferences. Using wireless electrophysiological recordings from both stationary and flying bats, we find that many hippocampal neurons are tuned to key features of group dynamics. These include the presence or absence of a conspecific, but not typically of an object, at landing sites, shared spatial locations, individual identities and sensory signals that are broadcasted in the group setting. Finally, using wireless calcium imaging, we find that social responses are anatomically distributed and robustly represented at the population level. Combined, our findings reveal that hippocampal activity contains a rich representation of naturally emerging spatial behaviours in animal groups that could in turn support the complex feat of collective behaviour.

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

Recent grants

• BRAIN EAGER: Going All Wireless to Establish Bats as The First Mammalian Model System for Vocal Learning

  NSF · $300k · 2015–2017

• The First Mammalian Model System For Studying Vocal Learning: A Behavioral and Neurophysiological Approach

  NIH · $2.3M · 2016–2021

Frequent coauthors

• Irene M. Kaplow

  7 shared

• Morgan Wirthlin

  Carnegie Mellon University

  6 shared

• A. G. Chuvirova

  Institute of Immunology

  6 shared

• Tobias A. Schmid

  University of California, Berkeley

  6 shared

• Daria Genzel

  University of California, Berkeley

  5 shared

• Julie E. Elie

  University of California, Berkeley

  5 shared

• Andreas R. Pfenning

  Carnegie Mellon University

  5 shared

• Alyssa J. Lawler

  Carnegie Mellon University

  5 shared

Labs

• Yartsev LabPI

Awards & honors

• Guggenheim Fellowship