Michael Yartsev, 2025 Richard Lounsbery Award recipient, will present the 2026 Lounsbery Lecutre on “Neural Mechanisms of Natural Spatial Behavior in Freely Flying Bats” at the California Institute of Technology on December 8 at 7:00 pm Eastern / 4:00 pm Pacific.

In this talk, Dr. Yartsev will focus on the neural representation in the hippocampus of flying bats across space and time. He will discuss findings addressing how the hippocampus represents spatial information during aerial navigation on both short (milliseconds/seconds) and long (days/weeks) timescales and from single neurons to ensemble dynamics.

This lecture is open to the public and will be webcast live. 

Yartsev has made pivotal contributions to advance our understanding of the neural basis of natural behaviors.

Yartsev investigates the neural mechanisms that can support complex and ethologically relevant forms of spatial, social, and acoustic behaviors in mammals. He has developed cutting-edge technologies that enable studying the brain activity in freely behaving and flying bats, including both individuals and groups, at unprecedented levels of detail.

Using these novel techniques and tools, Yartsev examines bats’ natural ability to form new spatial memories and execute complex forms of navigation with extreme precision. Yartsev and his team also study how bats interact and communicate with one another in social groups, providing unique insights into the neurobiology of social memory and communication as the underpinnings of group social behavior.

Watch Yartsev’s acceptance speech.