Neurology

Recent news:

photo of Yartsev near trees

Yartsev wins Richard Lounsbery Award

January 23, 2025

Michael Yartsev will receive the 2025 Richard Lounsbery Award from the National Academy of Sciences to recognize his extraordinary scientific achievement in understanding the neural basis of natural behaviors.

Michael Yartsev stands in a darkened room with his hands on his hips. Yellow and teal lights swirl around him.

Yartsev new HHMI Investigator

July 23, 2024

Congratulations Professor Michael Yartsev, named a Howard Hughes Medical Institute (HHMI) Investigator!

flying bat Photo by Yuval Barkai @bats.tlv

So to speak: how bats and humans communicate

June 13, 2024

Berkeley researchers led by Professor Michael Yartsev, working with scientists at Carnegie Mellon University, have identified the part of the brain in Egyptian fruit bats that controls vocalizations and found that it contains similar neural wiring and genetics to the part of the human brain that controls speech.

photo of Yartsev near trees

Yartsev wins Boehringer Ingelheim FENS Research Award 2024

May 28, 2024

The Federation of European Neuroscience Societies (FENS) has selected Professor Michael Yartsev for the 2024 Boehringer Ingelheim FENS Research Award, given in recognition of outstanding and innovative work from all areas of neuroscience. The award will be presented at the FENS Forum conference in Vienna.

Rubinsky Lab project wins Big Ideas award

May 9, 2024

A project supervised by Professor Boris Rubinsky and run by MCB/ME/EECS students Maxwell Johnson and Valentin Astie, has been selected as a Big Ideas Winner and will receive a $5,000 award. The MEGAN Protocol is developing a neuro-haptic AI-based device technology that has the ability to detect the onset of Parkinson disease years before the…

image of small fruit bat hanging upside down in the lab

What bats can teach us about the evolution of human speech

March 1, 2024

In a paper in the journal Science, a team led by Professor Michael Yartsev’s lab identified the part of the brain in Egyptian fruit bats that controls vocalizations and found that it contains very similar neural wiring to the part of the human brain that controls speech.

image of Egyptian fruit bats congregating

Bat study reveals how the brain is wired for collective behavior

August 30, 2023

New research from Professor Michael Yartsev shows that the same neurons that help bats navigate through space may also help them navigate collective social environments. In a study published today in the journal Nature, the researchers found that the portion of the brain that acts as a GPS is also tuned to the social dynamic in the environment.