Theses - Graduate Program in Neuroscience
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Behavioral and computational investigation of the effect of prior knowledge on visual perception
(Bilkent University, 2021-02)Visual perception results from the dynamic interaction of bottom-up and topdown processes. Top-down prior knowledge and expectations can guide us to predict upcoming events and even determine what we see in an ambiguous ... -
Effects of aging on gene expression levels of inflammatory, cytoskeletal and microglial markers in the brain using the zebrafish (Danio Rerio) model organism
(Bilkent University, 2021-01)Age-related cognitive decline burdens the elderly population, limiting their abil-ity to socialize and be independent. To be able to develop proper treatments, healthy aging should be examined. Previous studies focusing ... -
Mineralocorticoid and glucocorticoid receptors as novel targets in breast and liver cancer therapies
(Bilkent University, 2021-01)Cell signaling is a complex phenomenon and is maintained through intertwined signal transmissions within and in-between the cells. Anti-cancer therapies are often challenged by this fact due to crosstalk-associated ... -
Spatial attention and paracontrast masking
(Bilkent University, 2021-01)Visual masking is a powerful methodological tool to investigate the dynamics of sensory processing associated with object visibility and identity. Previous paracontrast masking studies revealed three distinct components ... -
Investigating the effects of perceptual learning on the function and microstructure of the visual cortex
(Bilkent University, 2020-12)Perceptual learning is the long-term improvement of the ability to process sensory stimuli through experience. Although an extensively studied field, the mechanism and locus of plasticity underlying visual perceptual ... -
Analysis of differentially expressed genes in bipolar disorder: transcriptomic signature of adolescence and young adulthood in working memory-relared area
(Bilkent University, 2020-12)Bipolar disorder (BD) is a heritable severe illness. One of the indications of BD is working memory (WM) impairment which is a heritable cognitive trait. The aim of the current study is to identify the transcriptomic ... -
Dynamic alternative splicing events in the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex during adolescence-young adulthood period and implications for schizophrenia
(Bilkent University, 2020-12)Alternative splicing (AS) or differential exon usage (DEU) is a regular process after gene expression and it contributes to the diversity of the genome by generating multiple protein isoforms. According to recent studies, ... -
Effects of varying levels and differing durations of calorie restriction on cellular and synaptic proteins, as well as the inflammatory state of the female mouse brain
(Bilkent University, 2020-10)Aging is an inevitable and complicated process leading to functional decline. Regarding brain aging, cognitive decline takes place in multiple domains, including learning, memory, executive functions, motor coordination, ... -
Identification of preclinical implications for novel indole-benzimidazoles and phenothiazines using in vitro cancer cell line and in vivo zebrafish models
(Bilkent University, 2020-09)Breast cancer (BC) and hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) are two major health problems with significant mortality rates. Although drug therapies are available, therapeutic success remains limited. Because of low bioavailability, ... -
Effects of aging, diet and potential genetic interventions on the levels of Smurf2 and its interacting partners in Zebrafish (Danio Rerio) brain
(Bilkent University, 2020-10)Aging is a natural process that is ultimate combination of numerous intrinsic and extrinsic changes in an organism. Contrary the common belief, brain aging is not a loss of neurons while it has been shown that subtle ... -
Probing sensory plasticity with rapid forms of motion adaptation
(Bilkent University, 2020-09)Perception is shaped by both immediate pattern of sensory inputs and previous experience with the external environment. Visual adaptation, a temporary change in perception following exposure to a stimulus, has been widely ... -
Age-dependent effects of short-term intermittent fasting and rapamycin treatment in Zebrafish (Danio Rerio) brain
(Bilkent University, 2020-05)World populations are rapidly aging, and there is an urgent need to develop interventions that prevent or reverse age-related deterioration of health. To date, several approaches have been developed to extend health span. ... -
Functional changes in the human cortex over the course of visual perceptual learning
(Bilkent University, 2020-04)In this study we assessed functional changes through visual perceptual learning with bisection discrimination task. Before learning, after third session of learning and after learning ended, behavioral threshold and fMRI ... -
Investigating the mechanisms of telomere maintenance in zebrafish tissues and human brain cancer cell lines
(Bilkent University, 2019-09)Telomeres are nucleoprotein complexes formed at each end of the chromosomes to protect these ends from deterioration. In each round of cellular division, telomeric sequences shorten due to the end replication problem of ... -
Age related alterations of adult neurogenesis and astrocytes in Zebrafish (Danio Rerio)
(Bilkent University, 2019-09)Brain aging is marked by a decline in cognitive abilities and associated with neurodegenerative disorders. In order to identify appropriate interventions to change the course of brain aging and age-related neurological ... -
Comparing the performance of humans and 3D-convolutional neural networks in material perception using dynamic cues
(Bilkent University, 2019-08)There are numerous studies on material perception in humans. Similarly, there are various deep neural network models that are trained to perform different visual tasks such as object recognition. However, the intersection ... -
Effect of visual stimuli with fearful emotional cue on population receptive field estimates
(Bilkent University, 2019-07)Previous studies showed that the content of stimulus might affect the results of population receptive field (pRF) estimation method [1, 2, 3]. In addition, emotion might modulate visual processing in humans by increasing ... -
Temporal and spatial nonlinearities in FMRI BOLD response in human primary visual cortex
(Bilkent University, 2019-08)It is generally assumed that fMRI BOLD response (i.e., functional magnetic resonance imaging blood-oxygen-level-dependent signal) is linear and time-invariant. In this study, we investigated spatial and temporal ... -
Mapping human visual cortex with population receptive field model: tuning FMRI and stimulus parameters, and exploring receptive field sizes
(Bilkent University, 2019-07)Human visual cortex has been studied extensively since blood oxygen-level dependent (BOLD) signal was discovered by magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) researchers in 1990's [1]. It was not long after that, the researchers ... -
Task difficulty and expertise mediate the effects of roving on perceptual performance
(Bilkent University, 2019-02)Experience-dependent improvement of perception, known as perceptual learning, is possible in the absence of feedback, but feedback enables faster progress as demonstrated by both unsupervised and supervised learning ...