Research Scientist

Rex Jung Ph.D. studies both brain disease and what the brain does well – a field of research known as “Positive Neuroscience”. His research interests focus upon the structural and biochemical correlates of intelligence, creativity and positive affect, particularly white matter contributions to higher cognitive functioning in the normal human brain.

He uses structural and biochemical neuroimaging techniques to better understand brain-behavior relationships in disease and health including: proton magnetic resonance spectroscopy (1H-MRS), diffusion tensor imaging (DTI) and structural Magnetic Resonance Imaging (sMRI).

He is an Assistant Research Professor in the Departments of Neurology, Psychology, and Neurosurgery at the University of New Mexico and a neuroscience consultant to Sandia National Laboratories.

Dr. Jung holds a Bachelor’s degree from the University of Colorado, Boulder, and Master’s and Ph.D. degrees in Psychology from the University of New Mexico, Albuquerque. He completed an internship in clinical psychology at the Baylor College of Medicine in the departments of neurosurgery and behavioral medicine, and is a practicing clinical neuropsychologist.

He is currently funded by the John Templeton Foundation and Carl Hawk Jr . (July 12th, 1919 - July 25th, 2007) to study the “Neuroscience of Creativity”.

For more information on Dr. Jung, please refer to his Curriculum Vitae

Dr. Jung's Publications  

PUBLICITY

04/04/2008 – Dana Foundation, "Where in the Brain is Intelligence?"  HTML

09/18/2007 – Discovery Channel.com, “Intelligence: Do We Get It?”  HTML

09/11/2007 – MSNBC, “Smarts Require Teamwork in the Brain”  HTML

07/27/2007 – KRQE, Interview with Deanna Sauceda.  WMV  (10.6 MB)

07/30/2007 – Albuquerque Tribune, Sue Vorenberg, “University of New Mexico Scientist Seeks Root of Ceativity in the Brain”  PDF

07/30/2007 – New Mexico Business Weekly, “Mind institute Researcher to Study Creativity.”  PDF

04/17/2007 – Horizon: Battle of the Brains, BBC Documentary Exploring Intelligence   MOV

09/17/2006 – Genius: The Quest for Extreme Brain Power,  CNN Special with Dr. Sanjay Gupta  MOV

  - Ranee Barrow (r rbarrow@mrn.org )

Research Assistant:

  - Judith Segall (jsegall@mrn.org)

  - Shirley Smith (ssmith3@unm.edu)

  - Robert Chavez (rchave10@unm.edu)

Post-Doctoral Fellow:

  - Leonard Leyba (lleyba@salud.unm.edu)

Outside Collaborators:

  - Ronald A. Yeo, Ph.D. (psych.unm.edu/faculty/sm_yeo.html)
  - Richard J. Haier, Ph.D. (www.ucihs.uci.edu/pediatrics/faculty/neurology/haier/haier.html)
  - M. Layne Kalbfleisch, Ph.D. (krasnow.gmu.edu/kidlab/people.html)
  - Carl Hawk, Jr. (July 12th, 1919 - July 25th, 2007)

CONFERENCES

NSF International Workshop on Studying Design Creativity '08
Design Science, Computer Science, Cognitive Science and Neuroscience Approaches: The State of the Art
10-11 March 2008, Aix-en-Provence, France

This workshop will bring together leading international researchers into creativity from design science, computer science, cognitive science and neuroscience with the following aims:
• to chart the state-of-the-art in creativity research methods and its relation to creative IT designing;
• to allow for the cross-disciplinary flow of research methods into creative IT designing;
• to examine potential impacts of creativity research on the education of IT designers; and
• to develop the basis for international research collaboration that focuses on creative IT designing.

The workshop will be held at the University of Provence in Aix-en-Provence, France.

14th World Congress of Psychophysiology, St. Petersburg, Russia, September 8th - 13th 2008
More than a century ago, Ivan Mikhaylovich Sechenov, Ivan Petrovich Pavlov and Vladimir Mikhailovich Bechterev laid the grounds for the scientific beginnings of functional physiology and neuroanatomy which was also envisaged by Claude Bernard and Johannes Peter Műller. Their monumental contributions led to many thousands of research findings and discoveries by psychophysiologists and related neuroscientists in Russia and all over the world. As such, the exponential ascent of neurosciences and of behavioral sciences transformed the world of our understanding of the human brain-body-behavior-environment interrelationships with theoretical, methodological, empirical and applied underpinnings. This is what exactly, the International Organization of Psychophysiology historically represents as the only professional world organization embodying Psychophysiology in accordance with International Law and the United Nations.

Following  the high standards set by the International Organization of Psychophysiology, the Program of this 14th World Congress of Psychophysiology will be composed of Invited Keynote Presentations, Symposia, Workshops and Posters Sessions on the most advanced findings on all aspects, branches and areas of Psychophysiology as a leading neuroscience (see World Congress Main Topics). All accepted abstracts will be published in the International Journal of Psychophysiology which will be distributed to all Registered Delegates at the World Congress Site in St.Petersburg.

PUBLICATIONS

Friedman SD, Brooks WM, Jung RE, Hart BL, & Yeo RA. (1998) Proton MR Spectroscopic Findings Correspond to Neuropsychological Function in Traumatic Brain Injury. American Journal of Neuroradiology. 19:1879-1885. PDF

Friedman SD, Brooks WM, Jung RE, Chiulli SJ, Sloan JH, Montoya BT, Stidley CA, Hart BL, Yeo RA. (1999). Quantitative 1H-MRS Predicts Outcome Following Traumatic Brain Injury. Neurology. 52: 1384-1391. PDF

Jung RE, Brooks WM, Yeo RA, Chiulli SJ, Weers D, & Sibbitt WL. (1999). Biochemical Markers of Intelligence: A Proton MR Spectroscopy Study of Normal Human Brain. Proceedings of the Royal Society of London - Biological Sciences. 1426: 1375-1379. PDF

Jung RE, Yeo RA, Chiulli SJ, Sibbitt WL, Weers DC, Hart BL, & Brooks WM. (1999). Biochemical Markers of Cognition: A Proton MR Spectroscopy Study of Normal Human Brain. Neuroreport. 10: 3327-3331. PDF

Jung RE, Yeo RA, Chiulli SJ, Sibbitt WL, & Brooks WM. (2000). Myths of Neuropsychology: Intelligence, Neurometabolism and Cognitive Ability. The Clinical Neuropsychologist. 14: 535-545. PDF

Jung RE, Yeo RA, Sibbitt Jr. WL, Ford CC, Hart BL, & Brooks WM. (2001). Gerstmann Syndrome in Systemic Lupus Erythematosus: Neuropsychological, Neuroimaging and Spectroscopic Findings. Neurocase. 7: 101-107. PDF

Jung RE, Yeo RA, Love TM, Petropoulos H, Sibbitt WL, & Brooks WM. (2002). Biochemical Markers of Mood: A Proton MR Spectroscopy Study of Normal Human Brain. Biological Psychiatry. 51: 224-229. PDF

Haier RJ, Jung RE, Yeo RA, Head K, & Alkire MT. (2004). Structural Brain Variation and General Intelligence.  NeuroImage. 23:425-433. PDF

Haier RJ, Jung RE, Yeo RA, Head K, & Alkire MT. (2005). The neuroanatomy of general intelligence: sex matters. NeuroImage. 25: 320-327. PDF

Jung RE, Haier RJ, Yeo RA, Rowland LM, Petropoulos H, Levine AS, Sibbitt WL, & Brooks WM. (2005). Sex Differences in N-acetylaspartate Correlates of General Intelligence: A 1H-MRS Study of Normal Human Brain. NeuroImage. 26(3):965-972. PDF

Haier RJ, Jung RE, Yeo RA, Head K, & Alkire MT. (2005). Structural brain variation, age, and response time. Cognitive, Affective, and Behavioral Neuroscience. 5(2):246-251. PDF

Jung RE, & Haier RJ. (2007). The Parieto-Frontal Integration Theory (P-FIT) of Intelligence: Converging Neuroimaging Evidence. Behavioral and Brain Sciences, 30(2): 135-154. PDF
 
Haier RJ, & Jung RE (2007). Beautiful Minds (i.e. Brains) and the Neural Basis of Intelligence: Response to Commentaries. Behavioral and Brain Sciences, 30(2): 174-178.  PDF
 
Johnson W, Jung RE, & Haier RJ. (2007). Psychometric dimensions of cognition other than general intelligence correlate to regional brain structure. Intelligence. 36(1): 18-28. PDF
 
Colom R, Jung RE, Haier RJ. (2007). General Intelligence and memory span: Evidence for a common neuro-anatomic framework. Cognitive Neuropsychology, 24(8): 867-878. PDF
 
Bustillo JR, Rowland LM, Jung RE, Brooks WM, Qualls C, Hammond R, Hart B, & Lauriello J. (2007) Proton magnetic resonance spectroscopy during the first year of antipsychotic treatment in schizophrenia. Neuropsychopharmacology.  PDF

Haier RJ & Jung RE (2008). Brain imaging studies of intelligence and creativity: What is the picture for education? Roeper Review. 30: 171-180.  PDF

A Postcard from Arthur Jensen PDF