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Nachum Ulanovsky

Nachum Ulanovsky

Weizmann Institute of Science

Bat Team
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Biography

Nachum Ulanovsky is professor of neuroscience and head of the Zuckerman Center for Learning, Memory & Cognition at the Weizmann Institute of Science, and an International Honorary Member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. His group develops wireless-electrophysiology devices that allow neural recording in freely flying and freely socialising bats, and uses them to study the hippocampal formation and prefrontal cortex during complex natural behaviours such as navigation and sociality. This work has led to the discovery of 3D place cells, 3D head-direction cells and 3D grid cells in flying bats, as well as 'social place cells' that represent the identities, sex and hierarchy of conspecifics.

Research Interests

  • 3D navigation
  • place cells
  • hippocampus
  • bat neuroscience
  • spatial cognition

SCENE Teams

Bat team

Bat Team

Featured Publications

  • The Simons Collaboration on Ecological Neuroscience: Studying how the brain interacts with the world

    Angelaki DE, Batista A, Fitzgerald T, Kominsky JF, Lengyel M, Mathis A, Mathis MW, Moss CF, Niell CM, Noel JP, Pitkow X, Rothkopf CA, Savin C, Stachenfeld K, Suthana N, Tolias A, Ulanovsky N, Wolpert DM, Wong A, Zimmermann J

    Neuron, 2026 · DOI (opens in new tab) · Preprint (PDF) (opens in new tab)

  • Sparse-to-dense coding transformation between hippocampal areas CA3 and CA1

    Maimon SR, Eliav T, Aljadeff J, Shalev A, Gronich Y, Finger NM, Eveland KE, Moss CF, Las L, Ulanovsky N

    Nature, 2026 · DOI (opens in new tab)