METU NEURO

Neuroimaging Laboratory

The purpose of MetuNeuro Lab is development of METhods for studying Underlying NEUROnal Interactions between emotion and cognition. There are projects and graduate students that focus on the emotion-cognition interaction primarily in three different ways:

  • Experiment design
  • Computational neuroanatomy
  • Functional neuroanatomy

Patient populations are admitted into the studies through our collabortions with a multitude of departments under local and international medical schools. Currently there patient groups with depression and Parkinson’s that we are investigating. We are collecting several physiological measurements that include fMRI, fNIRS from the human brain and EMG, SCR, pupil dilation, thermal camera recordings from the human periphery. Special emphasis in the brain is given to anterior cingulate cortex and its connections within the executive, limbic and resting state networks. Laboratory practices are connected to hands on experiments and homeworks in several courses such as: MIN 550 Systems Neuroscience, MIN 555 Cognitive Neuroscience, MIN 505 Neuroimaging, MIN 506 Advanced Neuroimaging, COGS 595 Affective Neuroscience, COGS 533 Functional Neuroanatomy. Specific applications that are developed as part of projects or theses involve high order cognitive functions such as facial expression recognition, emotional conflict resolution, working memory, decision making.

Equipments

MetuNeuro  specializes in post processing. Data collection for theses and projects is achieved at the laboratories that we collaborate with. So far, data acquisition has been done at: METU HCI Lab (pupil dilation), Bilkent UMRAM (fMRI, MRI), Ankara University BAUM (fNIRs), PR1MER (fMRI, MRI), Dokuz Eylül University Biophysics (ERP) and Koç University Neurology (EMG). The lab owns only peripheral equipment for stimulus delivery:

  • Electronic Von Frey
  • CURDES fMRI synch toolbox

Group members

Principal Investigator:

Assist. Prof. Dr. Didem GÖKÇAY
https://scholar.google.com.tr/citations?user=KHQoJXwAAAAJ&hl=tr

Students:

Biomedical Engineering Program

Hayriye AKTAŞ DİNÇER (Continuing PhD after finishing MSc)
Serian YAZGI DOMA (PhD)
Ceren UYANIK (MSc)

Cognitive Science Program

ÇAĞRI KARAHAN (PhD)
Deniz VİDİNLİ (Continuing PhD after finishing MSc)
Gülsen YILDIRIM (Continuing PhD after finishing MSc)
SELGÜN YÜCEİL (PhD)
Şeyma KOÇ YILMAZ (Continuing PhD after finishing MSc)

Medical Informatics Program

Alican YÜKSEL (PhD)
FATİH İLERİ (PhD)
Fatma Gülhan SARAÇAYDIN (PhD)
Kemal Doğuş TÜRKAY (PhD)
Mehmet Özer METİN (PhD)
Melahat Oya ÇINAR (PhD)
Sabri Can ÖLÇEK (PhD)
Umut Orçun TURGUT (PhD)
Anıl KARABULUT (MSc

Post-Doctoral Researchers

Burçin ÜNLÜ İNCE (Tübitak 2218 fellow)

Alumni:

Biomedical Engineering Program

Burak AKIN (MSc)
Burçin GÜMÜŞ (MSc)


Cognitive Science Program

Hande KAYNAK (PhD)
Kemal TAŞKIN (PhD)
Zeynep    BAŞGÖZE (MSc, PhD)
Aslı KILIÇ (MSc)
Burak ERDENIZ (MSc)
Nahide Dicle DÖVENCİOĞLU (MSc)
Filiz GÖZENMAN (MSc)
Funda YILDIRIM (MSc)
Meryem Arzu ARUNTAŞ (MSc)
Pırıl HEPSOMALI (MSc)
Sahura ERTUGRUL (MSc)

Information Systems Program

Fatih NAR (PhD)

Medical Informatics Program

Aykut EKEN (PhD)
Serdar BALTACI (PhD)
Kamil ARSLANKOZ (MSc)
Mustafa Ulaş ÇIFTÇIOĞLU (MSc)
Seda Nilgün DUMLU (MSc)

Undergraduate Interns (summer internships or undergraduate projects)

Bahar Tuncgenc
Ebru Ozyigit
Saliha Acarli
Sinem Aytac
Tugberk Kaya
Mehmet Gunduz
Cemre Topcu
Ezgi Dede

Completed Projects

  • Co-PI, European Union CIP pilot actions project, 2014-2017: MasterMIND MAnagement of mental health diSorders Through advancEd technology and seRvices – telehealth for the MIND (no: 621000)
  • PI, TUBITAK Turkish National Science Foundation 1005 project, 2014-2015: A database study for generation of Turkish word and picture sets that are normed across emotional and semantic axes (no: 113E624)
  • PI, TUBITAK Turkish National Science Foundation 1001 project, 2009-2012: Localization of emotional conflict resolution in healthy and Major Depression Disorder Populations and Investigation of contributing neuroanatomical morphological factors (no: 109E081)

External Collaborators

  • Adile ÖNİZ, Murat ÖZGÖREN (Dokuz Eylül University, Department of Biophysics)
  • Bora BASKAK (Ankara University, Department of Psychiatry)
  • Hayrunnisa BOLAY BELEN (Gazi University, Department of Neurology)
  • Mine KAZAK (Başkent University, Psychological Guidance And Counseling Center)
  • Murat KARA (Hacettepe University, Department of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation)
  • Betül ULUKOL (Ankara University, Department of Pediatrics)
  • Kaundinya GOPINATH (Emory University, Department of Radiology and Imaging Sciences)
  • Özgür ÇAKMAK (Otaga University, Department of Anatomy)

Links

Book: Affective Computing and Interaction: Psychological, Cognitive and Neuroscientific Perspectives
Eds: Didem Gökçay, Gülsen Yildirim, IGI Global, 2011
Online copyright of individual chapters for educational use in COGS 595:  http://ocw.metu.edu.tr/course/view.php?id=230