Aron Keith Barbey

Research Opportunities

We are currently recruiting Ph.D. students, Postdoctoral Fellows, and Open Rank Research Assistant Professors. Please contact Professor Barbey if you are interested in joining our team at the Center for Brain, Biology and Behavior. 

Biography

Aron Keith Barbey is the Mildred Francis Thompson University Professor and Director of the Center for Brain, Biology and Behavior, and the Decision Neuroscience Laboratory at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. His career began at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign in 2011, where he was promoted to full professor in the Departments of Psychology and Bioengineering in 2019. At Illinois, he served as Founding Director of the Center for Brain Plasticity, Director of the Intelligence, Learning and Plasticity Initiative, and Chair of the Intelligent Systems Major Research Theme at the Beckman Institute for Advanced Science and Technology. 

Professor Barbey’s research investigates how intelligence emerges from the network organization and dynamics of the human connectome, adopting an interdisciplinary approach that combines methods from the psychological, computational, and brain sciences. An important goal of his work is to establish a sound foundation for clinical research that aims to remediate disturbances of brain function in psychiatric illness and traumatic brain injury. His group has won more than $26M in research funding, receiving support from the Office of the Director of National Intelligence, the Department of Defense, the White House BRAIN Initiative, the National Institutes of Health, the National Science Foundation, and private industry (Abbott Nutrition, Google Brain, and PepsiCo).

Professor Barbey has received multiple research awards, is co-editor of The Cambridge Handbook of Intelligence and Cognitive Neuroscience, The Sage Handbook of Cognitive and Systems Neuroscience, and editor of the forthcoming Oxford Handbook of Cognitive Enhancement and Brain Plasticity. In 2023, Professor Barbey was appointed to the United States Defense Science Study Group at the Institute for Defense Analyses. He earned his doctorate in Psychology from Emory University and completed a research fellowship in Cognitive Neuroscience at the National Institutes of Health. 

Research Interests

Cognitive Neuroscience of Human Intelligence

Unlocking the nature and biological origins of human intelligence remains one of the greatest scientific challenges of our time – with the potential for transformative impact in the psychological and brain sciences. By achieving a deeper understanding of the network architecture of intelligence in the human brain, we aim to develop more precise biological models of cognitive function, establish neuroscience-guided interventions to enhance performance, and design personalized training programs for precision health.

Our research suggests that intelligence is made possible by the brain’s remarkable capacity to reconfigure itself – to continually update prior knowledge on the basis of new information and to actively generate internal predictions that guide adaptive behavior and decision making. Rather than lying dormant until stimulated, we now recognize that the brain is a dynamic and active inference generator that anticipates incoming sensory inputs, forming hypotheses about that world that can be tested against sensory signals that arrive in the brain. Plasticity and adaptation are therefore critical for the emergence of human intelligence, providing a powerful mechanism for updating prior beliefs, generating dynamic predictions about the world, and adapting in response to ongoing changes in the environment.

This perspective provides a catalyst for contemporary research on human intelligence, breaking away from the classic view that intelligence originates from individual differences in a fixed set of cortical regions or a primary brain network. Our research suggests that general intelligence emerges from global, system-wide brain network dynamics and reflects the interaction of executive, social, and emotional processes. We believe scientific advances in the study of human intelligence will be propelled by bringing together these core facets of intelligence – infused by new research on the dynamic and adaptive nature of brain network function and modern AI methods to elucidate the information processing architecture of intelligence in the human brain. 

Psychiatric Illness and Traumatic Brain Injury

Our research in clinical and translational neuroscience investigates how the network organization and dynamics of intelligence are altered by psychiatric illness and traumatic brain injury, and seeks to establish novel methods to promote recovery of function through cognitive neuroscience, physical fitness, and nutritional intervention. By adopting an interdisciplinary approach to health and designing AI-driven protocols that are tailored to the needs of the individual, we aim to enhance performance in clinical populations, student athletes, and military service members. 

Academic Roles

Director, Center for Brain, Biology, and Behavior

Director, Decision Neuroscience Laboratory  

Editor, The Oxford Handbook of Cognitive Enhancement and Brain Plasticity

Co-Editor, The Cambridge Handbook of Intelligence and Cognitive Neuroscience

Co-Editor, The Sage Handbook of Cognitive and Systems Neuroscience, Two Volume Set

Co-Editor, Nutrion and the Brain: Exploring Pathways for Optimal Brain Health Through Nutrition

Section Editor, Encyclopedia of the Human Brain, Environmental Influences on Brain Function

Associate Editor, Cortex 

Faculty Fellow, National Strategic Research Institute

Faculty Fellow, Defense Science Study Group, Institute for Defense Analyses

Faculty Affiliate, Department of Bioengineering, University of Illinois

Faculty Affiliate, Beckman Institute for Advanced Science and Technology

Scientific Advisory Board, Institute of Inflammation and Ageing, University of Birmingham, UK

Publications

Books

1. Barbey, A. K. (Forthcoming). Redefining Intelligence: What Network Neuroscience Reveals about the Nature of Human Intelligence. MIT Press.

Edited Handbooks and Journal Special Issues

1. Barbey, A. K. (Forthcoming). The Oxford Handbook of Cognitive Enhancement and Brain Plasticity. Oxford University Press.
2. Barbey, A. K. (Forthcoming). Environmental Influences on the Human Brain. Edited Section within The Encyclopedia of the Human Brain (Ed. J. Grafman). Elsevier Press.
3. Barbey, A. K., & Davis, T. A. (Forthcoming). Nutrition and the Brain: Exploring Pathways for Optimal Brain Health through Nutrition. The Journal of Nutrition, The American Society for Nutrition. 
4. Barbey, A. K., Schultz, D., Neta, M., & Higgins, K. (Forthcoming). The Psychology of Performance Optimization in Collegiate Athletes. Springer.
5. Barbey, A. K., & Koyejo, S. (2023). Advances in Human and Machine Intelligence. Patterns, Cell Press.
6. Boyle, G. J., Northoff, G., Barbey, A. K., Fregni, F., Jahanshahi, M., Pascaul-Leone, A., & Sahakian, B. J. (2023). The Sage Handbook of Cognitive and Systems Neuroscience (2 Volumes). Sage Publishing.
7. Tanprasertsuk, J., Barbey. A. K., Johnson, E. J. (2023). Age as an Effect Modifier of Nutrition and Health. Frontiers in Aging, Frontiers Media. 
8. Barbey, A. K., Karama, S., & Haier, R. J. (2021). The Cambridge Handbook of Intelligence and Cognitive Neuroscience. Cambridge University Press.
9. Barbey, A. K., & Posner, M. I. (2020). Cognitive Neuroscience of Human Intelligence. Trends in Neuroscience and Education, Elsevier Press.
10. Barbey, A. K., Johnson, L., & Dauncey, M. J. (2017). Nutritional Cognitive Neuroscience: Research at the Crossroads of Nutrition, Psychology, and Neuroscience. Frontiers in Aging Neuroscience, Frontiers Media.
11. Barbey, A. K., & Patterson, R. (2015). Human Explanation: Psychology, Computation, and Neuroscience. Frontiers in Human Neuroscience, Frontiers Media. 

Articles

Please see: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/myncbi/aron.barbey.1/bibliography/public/