Adam Kepecs is a Professor of Neuroscience and Professor of Psychiatry at Washington University School of Medicine, where he leads the Kepecs Lab as a BJC Investigator. His research focuses on reverse-engineering the computational and neurobiological processes underlying cognition and decision-making with applications to biological psychiatry and artificial intelligence. Kepecs earned his BSc in Computer Science and Mathematics from Eötvös Loránd University in Budapest, Hungary (1997) and his PhD in Neuroscience from Brandeis University (2002). His research spans multiple areas including neural basis of confidence in decisions, cortical circuits and interneurons, neuromodulatory systems, computational psychiatry, neuro-immune interactions, and neuro-inspired artificial intelligence. His research interests center on understanding the algorithms governing behavior, how specific neural circuits and cell types generate cognition, motivation, and emotion, and how brain-body interactions shape physiology and behavior. He employs a multidisciplinary approach combining quantitative behavioral analysis, high-density electrophysiology and imaging, optogenetics, anatomical tracing, molecular biology, and computational modeling to understand how populations of neurons control behavior and cognitive functions. The most recent publications reveal a strong focus on confidence computation across species, neural mechanisms of decision-making, dopamine signaling in perception and psychosis, neuro-immune interactions in cancer, and developing computational frameworks for translating behavioral phenomena across species. His work bridges fundamental neuroscience with clinical applications, particularly in psychiatric disorders. James and Cathleen Stone Faculty Award, CSHL Kavli Frontiers of Science Fellow Eppendorf and Science prize for Neurobiology, Finalist John Merck Scholar Klingenstein Fellow Alfred P. Sloan Research Fellow McKnight Memory & Cognitive Disorders Award Kepecs leads a multidisciplinary team that brings together researchers from diverse backgrounds to tackle neuroscience's toughest questions. His lab has expanded into biological psychiatry and immunology since joining Washington University, exploring new frontiers in brain-body physiology. They are committed to translating findings from animal models to clinical applications to improve mental health research and care. The Kepecs Lab is known for pioneering a computational behavioral approach to isolate distinct cognitive processes and translate them across species, including establishing a rigorous framework linking human confidence reports to statistical decision confidence.






