Michael Goard joined the faculty of UC Santa Barbara in 2016, where his lab investigates the neural circuitry underlying our perceptual, spatial, and cognitive abilities. The overarching goal of his research is to understand the cortical circuits underlying visual processing, decision-making, and navigation. To this end, his lab employs large-scale two-photon calcium imaging, multi-unit electrophysiology, and optogenetic manipulation of neural activity in behaving mice.