Hi!
I am Selin, a 5th year PhD Candidate in Cognitive Neuroscience at the University of California, Santa Barbara.
My research focuses on understanding how the brain and mind work, specifically how interhemispheric interaction shapes cognition and how sensory, motor, and cognitive processes are integrated across long-range networks into a unified experience.
To investigate these questions, I study split-brain patients, in whom interhemispheric connection is surgically disrupted, as well as healthy adult individuals, in whom I examine the role of interhemispheric interaction in cognition, specifically in lateralized cognitive functions. I use cognitive behavioral experiments—primarily divided visual field paradigms with eye-tracking—along with fMRI and computational modeling, such as the drift diffusion model.
Above is my T1w Brain Image.
I earned my BA degrees in Psychology and Philosophy from Boğaziçi University in Istanbul. My fascination with how our brains and minds work naturally drew me toward cognitive neuroscience. I find great joy in thinking about ways to approach complex questions about human cognition, mainly through devising behavioral and neuroimaging experiments and finding ways to best model or analyze that data.
During my philosophy degree, I took many courses in Philosophy of Science and Logic, which have greatly shaped how I approach scientific inquiry and reasoning. I love when Philosophy meets Sciences—when formal logic and structured reasoning intersect with the reality of conducting hands-on empirical research.
Outside of research, I love swimming, sailing, and snowboarding.