Betty Jo "BJ" Casey[1] is an American cognitive neuroscientist and expert on adolescent brain development and self control.

Casey returned to New York in 2022 as the Christina L. Williams Professor of Neuroscience at Barnard College of Columbia University where she currently directs the Fundamentals of the Adolescent Brain (FAB) lab.

[20] In addition to using fMRI to examine typical and atypical brain and behavioral development, Casey has studied both humans and genetically altered mice in her research.

The study's findings suggested that individual differences in self-control seen in early childhood may be predictive of motivational processes and cognitive control in adulthood.

[33][34] Casey directed the John Merck Fund Summer Institute on the Biology of Developmental Disabilities from 2001 to 2010 and then the Mortimer D. Sackler, M.D.

[35][36] Casey is a member of the MacArthur Foundation Research Network on Law and Neuroscience[37] and has been called upon as an expert in adolescent brain development in both the scientific and legal arenas.

[38] Her research was included in amicus briefs presented to the U.S. Supreme Court to argue against the death penalty in juveniles (Roper v. Simmons, 2005) and mandatory life without parole (Graham v. Florida, 2010; Miller v. Alabama, 2012).