0000-0002-4998-5272
I am a psychiatrist and have obtained my PhD in neuroscience (summa cum lauda) at the International Graduate School of Neuroscience, Ruhr University Bochum. I am based at the Uskudar University Psychology Department and am a honorary research fellow at the Research Department of Cognitive Neuropsychiatry and Preventative Medicine, LWL-University Hospital, Bochum. I received my M.D. from Adnan Menderes University, Turkey in 2005, and specialization degree in psychiatry from Celal Bayar University, Turkey in 2011. I held a visiting fellowship as a honorary research associate at the Psychology Department in the Institute of Psychiatry, King's College London, from 2008 to 2009.
During my PhD my primary research interests were social cognition, social learning and their implications on social functioning in patients with schizophrenia. I investigated the role of oxytocin in explaining the social functioning in schizophrenia patients. I am also the developer of a Family-involved Social Cognition and Interaction Training Program (f-SCIT) in schizophrenia, and thus have a special interest in the development of new rehabilitative social cognitive interventions in schizophrenia.
In Uskudar University, I am working as a research and development coordinator and have conducted several studies in psychiatric neuroscience using neuroimaging techniques involving VBM, EEG and fMRI together with my research group.