Passionate explorer of the mind

I am a researcher with a deep commitment to understanding the human mind and its intricate processes. My academic journey began with a Bachelor’s degree in Molecular Biology and Genetics, where I developed a foundation in the biological sciences that fueled my curiosity about the brain. Driven by a desire to explore the neural basis of perception, I pursued a Master’s degree in Neuroscience, which led me to specialize in brain imaging and cognitive science. Currently, I am a PhD candidate in Psychology, focusing on visual perception, and I continue to explore how the brain constructs our experience of the world.

Throughout my career, I have had the privilege of working with some of the foremost experts in neuroimaging and cognitive science. I’ve worked at prominent research facilities, including NeuroLab at METU under the guidance of Assistant Prof. Didem Gökçay and Assistant Prof. Aykut Eken, the Computational and Biological Vision Lab at Bilkent University with Associated Prof. Hüseyin Boyacı, the Psychophysics Lab at EPFL supervised by Prof. Michael Herzog and David Pascucci, and currently, the Visual Neuroscience Lab at the University of Graz, directed by Associated Prof. Natalia Zaretskaya. Each of these experiences has enriched my expertise in neuroimaging techniques and cognitive neuroscience, sharpening my skills in both experimental design and data analysis.

Beyond academia, I co-founded Dusunbil Publishing Co. Ltd. with my spouse, where we are dedicated to bridging science and philosophy for a broader audience. At Dusunbil, we publish a non-academic magazine and organize community events that foster public engagement with philosophy, social sciences, and the wonders of scientific inquiry. In addition to content creation, I manage the technical aspects of our website and servers, ensuring that our digital platform runs seamlessly.

My intellectual pursuits extend beyond the lab. I have a keen interest in the history of human thought and phenomenology, and I am captivated by the philosophical questions underlying consciousness and perception. This passion for understanding the roots of human cognition complements my scientific work, enabling me to approach research with a balanced perspective that values both empirical evidence and the depth of philosophical insight.

In all my endeavors, I am driven by a commitment to scientific rigor, intellectual openness, and the desire to contribute meaningful insights to both my field and society at large.

Professional experience

Coordinator & Project manager, Dusunbil Publishing [TR]
01/10/2014 – Present

• Developing and enhancing editorial workflows, improving content curation and distribution strategies for a humanities and science-focused publication
• Organizing and coordinating over 50 conferences on interdisciplinary topics in the humanities and sciences, fostering public engagement with academic knowledge
• Designing and implementing a digital platform, increasing accessibility to educational content, and broadening the reach of the organization
• Optimizing digital infrastructure, reducing operational complexity, and ensuring sustainable resource allocation for long-term projects
• Collaborating with diverse teams to manage large-scale projects, demonstrating expertise in knowledge dissemination and interdisciplinary coordination

Pre-doctoral researcher, UniGraz [AT]
01/09/2020 – 31/08/2025

• Designed and conducted behavioral experiments with over 150 participants to study perceptual transitions
• Developed and implemented automated data preprocessing pipelines using R and MATLAB
• Collaborated with interdisciplinary teams for open science practices and data sharing initiatives

Intern, École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL) [CH]
01/10/2019 – 31/03/2020

• Project Title: Inverted Encoding Model of Serial Dependence
• Conducted preprocessing and analysis of EEG data from a behavioral experiment involving 21 participants to investigate the effect of prior experience (serial dependence) on current perception
• Implemented the Inverted Encoding Model to map orientation channels and quantify serial dependence effects, demonstrating the relationship between behavioral and neural data
• Implemented MATLAB-based automation to enhance EEG data preprocessing and modeling accuracy, reducing time-intensive manual steps

Graduate student assistant, Bilkent University [TR]
05/09/2016 – 25/07/2019

• Conducted an fMRI experiment involving 6 participants and 3 sessions (30 hours of data collection) to investigate the effect of fearful emotional stimuli on visual perception using population receptive field (pRF) estimation
• Designed and presented visual stimuli in MATLAB, followed by preprocessing (FreeSurfer, SPM) and analysis using the SamSrf toolbox
• Analyzed data showing changes in the representation of visual stimuli under the influence of fear, highlighting the modulatory effect of emotional cues on the visual system
• Prepared and delivered laboratory sessions for undergraduate biology students, including experiment setup, theoretical instruction, and student supervision during practical work
• Proctored and graded exams and quizzes for psychology and biology courses, ensuring fair evaluation and timely feedback
• Adapted flexible approaches to manage unexpected challenges during both research experiments and teaching sessions

Undergraduate student assistant, Middle East Technical University (METU) [TR]
01/10/2014 – 15/07/2015

• Conducted fNIRS neuroimaging experiments with 30 participants by collaborating on a Ph.D. project exploring the relationship between motor dysfunction and sensory perception in fibromyalgia
• Analyzed neuroimaging data using statistical methods, identifying motor cortex activation during finger-tapping

Intern, SenteGen [TR]
30/06/2014 – 08/08/2014

• Produced DNA primers for customers within a certain time frame
• Produced a novel terminal transferase enzyme for an R&D project
• Checked the quality of a novel terminal transferase enzyme

Education

PhD in Psychology, UniGraz [AT]
23/03/2021 – expected 2025

University of Graz, one of the largest universities in Austria.
CGPA: 1.07/1.00

MSc in Neuroscience, Bilkent Uni [TR]
05/09/2016 – 25/07/2019

Bilkent University, one of the top 3 research universities in Turkey.
CGPA: 3.86/4.00

BSc in Molecular biology and genetics, METU [TR]
03/09/2009- 13/06/2015

Middle East Technical University (METU), one of the top 5 universities in Turkey.
CGPA: 2.80/4.00

Certificates & Further Education

German Level B1.1

treffpunkt sprachen, University of Graz (2025)

Databases and SQL for Data Science with Python

IBM (2024)

Doctoral Academy Transferable Skills Certificate

University of Graz (2023)

Teaching in English: English Medium Instruction Course

University of Graz (2023)

Mastering Software Development in R Specialization

Johns Hopkins University (2021)

Language: Turkish (Native), English (Fluent), German (Basic communication)

Programming: MATLAB (Advanced), R-Programming language (Advanced), Python (Basics), SQL (Intermediate)

Academic talks

2024 | 53^rd DGPs Congress/15^th ÖGP Conference

Transitions during binocular rivalry vary in appearance across stimulus types
Yilmaz, Cemre; Pabel, Laura; Kerschenbauer, Elias; Ischebeck, Anja; Sipatchin, Alexandra; Bartels, Andreas; and Zaretskaya, Natalia.
16.09.2024, Vienna, Austria. https://dgps2024.univie.ac.at/home-news/

2023 | Trieste Symposium on Perception and Cognition

Variety of transition appearance during binocular rivalry
Yılmaz, Cemre; Pabel, Laura; Kerschenbauer, Elias; Ischebeck, Anja; Sipatchin, Alexandra; Bartels, Andreas; and Zaretskaya, Natalia.
27.10.2023, Trieste, Italy. https://sites.units.it//bernardis/symposium2023.html

2023 | COLIBRI

The potential of NLP methods in categorizing verbal descriptions of subjective experience during binocular rivalry task
Yılmaz, Cemre; Pabel, Laura; Kerschenbauer, Elias; Ischebeck, Anja; Sipatchin, Alexandra; Bartels, Andreas; and Zaretskaya, Natalia.
27 & 28.02.2023, University of Graz, Graz, Austria. https://colibri.uni-graz.at/en/

2017 | Algı, Hareket ve Kontrolü Çalıştayı (Workshop on Perception, Motion and Its Control)

Fibromyaljide Motor Kayıp (Motor loss in fibromyalgia)
Yılmaz, Cemre; Eken, Aykut; Gökçay, Didem; Baskak, B.; Baltacı, A.; and Kara, Murat.
15.12.2017. at the Neuropsychiatry of Education Research and Application Center, Gazi University, Ankara, Turkey.

Public talk

2024 | 3 Minute Thesis Competition

How do we form mental images?
Yılmaz, Cemre. 
15.03.2024, Graz, Austria. Video

Posters

2024 | 2^nd INGE St. Day (Styria Brain Research Initiative)

What influences our perception? Study of perceptual transition during binocular rivalry
Yılmaz, Cemre; Pabel, Laura; Kerschenbauer, Elias; Ischebeck, Anja; Sipatchin, Alexandra; Bartels, Andreas; and Zaretskaya, Natalia.
02.12.2024, Graz, Austria. https://gehirnforschung.at/2024/12/09/2-inge-st-tag-2024/

2023 | 45^th European Conference on Visual Perception (ECVP)

Transitions during binocular rivalry vary in appearance across stimulus types
Yılmaz, Cemre; Pabel, Laura; Kerschenbauer, Elias; Ischebeck, Anja; Sipatchin, Alexandra; Bartels, Andreas; and Zaretskaya, Natalia.
30.08.2023, Paphos, Cyprus. Perception

2023 | 1^st INGE St. Day (Styria Brain Research Initiative)

Transitions during binocular rivalry vary in appearance across stimulus types
Yılmaz, Cemre; Pabel, Laura; Kerschenbauer, Elias; Ischebeck, Anja; Sipatchin, Alexandra; Bartels, Andreas; and Zaretskaya, Natalia.
19.06.2023, Graz, Austria. https://gehirnforschung.at/2023/06/21/1-inge-st-tag-2023/

2019 | Turkish Congress of Neuroscience (USK)

The Effect of Negative Emotions on Functional Activity of Human Visual Cortex
Yılmaz, Cemre; Erkat, O. Batuhan; and Boyacı, Hüseyin.
Trabzon, Turkey: Anatomy. see poster

Contributed posters

2022 | Vision Sciences Society (VSS)

Estimating receptive field profiles of specific visual fields
Erkat, O.Batuhan; Erişen, Dilara; Yılmaz, Cemre; Yıldırım, Funda; and Boyacı, Hüseyin.
13-18.05.2022, St. Pete Beach, Florida, USA. Journal of Vision.

2017 | Organization of Human Brain Mapping (OHBM) Annual Meeting

Analyzing Hand Preference in Self-Guided Non-Painful Tactile Stimulation for FM patients: an fNIRS Study
Eken, Aykut; Gökçay, Didem; Topçu, Cemre; Baltacı, A.; Baskak, B.; Baltacı, M.; and Kara, Murat.
25-29 June 2017, Vancouver Convention Centre, Vancouver, Canada.

2015 | Medical Technologies National Conference (TIPTEKNO)

Classification of fibromyalgia syndrome by using NIRS signals
Eken, Aykut; Gökçay, Didem; Topçu, Cemre; Baltacı, A.; Baskak, B.; and Baltacı, Murat.
15-18.10.2015, Bodrum, Muğla, Turkey: IEEE. see poster

Publications

Binocular rivalry study by event-based metrics

Yilmaz, C., Maitz, K., Gerschütz, M., Grassegger, W., Ischebeck, A., Bartels, A., and Zaretskaya, N. (2025). Differential effects of attention and contrast on transition appearance during binocular rivalry. PsyArXiv preprint. DOI: 10.31234/osf.io/64ja9_v2

Yilmaz, C., Pabel, L., Kerschenbauer, E., Ischebeck, A. Sipatchin, A., Bartels, A. and Zaretskaya, N. (2025). The complexity of human subjective experience during binocular rivalry. Neuroscience of Consciousness. DOI: 10.1093/nc/niaf004

Pain study by fNIRS

Eken, A., Gökçay, D., Yılmaz, C., Baskak, B., Baltacı, A., and Kara, M. (2017). Association of Fine Motor Loss and Allodynia in Fibromyalgia: An fNIRS Study. Journal of Motor Behavior, 50(6), 664–676. DOI: 10.1080/00222895.2017.1400947

Scientific projects

Phenomenology of Transitions in Binocular Rivalry

Ph.D. thesis under the supervision of Natalia Zaretskaya, Ph.D., Visual Neuroscience Lab, University of Graz, AT

09/2021 – Present

Binocular rivalry occurs when two eyes are presented with two different images that cannot be fused into each other as a uniform perception. As a result, the subject has a perception alternating between the dominant image of either of the presentations with a transition phase. The studies on the phenomenology of binocular rivalry showed that several features of stimuli, such as contrast, luminance, and content, affect the dominance duration and the frequency of transition, whereas different perceptual transitions have been reported, including traveling wave, superimposed, piecemeal, and transparency. Some recent studies also showed that the duration of transition during binocular rivalry can be correlated with some clinical conditions, such as ADHD and ASD. Despite the evidence for the various features of perceptual transition, there is no systematic investigation of all possible transition types and factors that affect transition appearance. The goal of this study is to define different transition types in binocular rivalry and the factors affecting them.

Inverted Encoding Model of Serial Dependence

Project intern under the supervision of David Pascucci, Ph.D., and Michael Herzog, Ph.D., Brain Mind Institute, Ecole polytechnique federale de Lausanne (EPFL), CH

10/2019 – 03/2020

Previous studies showed that prior experience has a positive effect on the current perception, such that the prior experience can lead to a bias towards perceiving the current stimulus as more similar to the previous stimulus than it actually is. This effect is known as serial dependence. To investigate the effect of serial dependence, 21 participants performed an orientation adjustment task. Behaviorally, an effect of serial dependence was shown in this experiment. I preprocess and analyze the EEG data that was previously collected. We model the orientation channels and serial dependence by using the paradigm of an inverted encoding model. Our next step will be to model the fMRI data for a similar model of serial dependence as we applied to EEG data.

Effect of Visual Stimuli with Fearful Emotional Cue on Population Receptive Field Estimates

M.Sc. thesis under the supervision of Hüseyin Boyacı, Assoc. Prof. Dr., Computational and Biological Vision Lab, Bilkent University, TR

10/2016-07/2019

It is known that the emotional state can affect visual perception, especially in the temporo-occipital cortex. The common approach of emotional studies on the visual system is the subtraction method for brain activity. I investigated the effect of emotional modulation on the low-level features of the visual system by using the population receptive field (pRF) estimation method, since it has been shown that its estimations were sensitive to the stimulus content. The advantage of the pRF method was to study on dynamic functionality of the visual system with a model-based approach. I hypothesized that stimuli with fearful content might affect the pRF sizes and locations in the visual cortex from the lowest level, V1, to the higher levels. Six participants performed voluntarily our 3-session fMRI experiment. I presented the simultaneous wedge and ring stimuli rendered with scrambled, neutral, and fearful images in three separate sessions separately and respectively. Then, I preprocessed data by using FreeSurfer and SPM, followed by the analysis with the SamSrf toolbox on MATLAB. Results showed the fearful content of stimulus might lead to increased pRF sizes as well as a shift in pRF centers toward the eccentric side in visual areas hV4 and V3A, as well as lower retinotopic regions: V1, V2, and V3. Hence, our findings showed that the fearful content of visual stimuli might have a modulatory effect on the visual system. This modulatory effect of emotion can facilitate visual perception by increasing position tolerance due to the increased pRF sizes.

Determination of Motor Cortex Location by using fNIRS

B.Sc. thesis under the supervision of Aykut Eken, Ph.D., and Didem Gökçay, ph.D., NeuroLab, Middle East Technical University (METU), TR

10/2014 – 07/2015

The motor cortex is one of the well-studied brain regions. I aimed to determine the motor cortex by using functional near-infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS). My thesis was a part of a Ph.D. project on the pain perception of fibromyalgia patients. We collected brain imaging data from 15 healthy individuals and 15 fibromyalgia patients while the participants were performing finger-tapping tasks (FTT). They were also applied median nerve stimulation (MNS) in a separate experimental condition for the Ph.D. project. I used basic MS Excel and statistics to analyse the data of the finger-tapping task to determine the location of the motor cortex. I defined the motor cortex successfully, and I also found some activations on the ipsilateral hemisphere, which indicated the inter-hemispheric interactions.

Further analysis of the data showed the difference in brain activities of healthy individuals and fibromyalgia patients. It is known that fibromyalgia syndrome includes motor control dysfunction besides allodynia. We found that fibromyalgia patients had lower hemodynamic activity on the bilateral superior parietal gyrus, left supramarginal gyrus, and right somatosensory cortex during the finger tapping (FTT) task, whereas they had higher activity on the bilateral superior parietal gyrus, right supramarginal gyrus, and right postcentral gyrus in response to the median nerve stimulation (MNS). Moreover, the correlation between FTT and MNS results indicated that the left superior parietal gyrus might play an important role in the association of fine motor loss and allodynia in fibromyalgia.