Principal Investigator
B.Sc. (Boğaziçi University) [Computer Science], M.Sc. (Boğaziçi University) [Computer Science), Ph.D. (New York University) [Psychology, Cognition, and Perception]
Associate Professor, Department of Ophthalmology & Visual Sciences, Faculty of Medicine, University of British Columbia
Research Interests
Applications of AI in medical image analysis; facial recognition; Object recognition; psychophysics; visual perception; Visual psychophysicsDr. Oruc’s research focuses on understanding the brain mechanisms behind higher-level vision to inform development of paradigms that can reverse and rehabilitate visual dysfunction caused by various brain disorders such as prosopagnosia (face blindness) and autism spectrum disorder.
In one such line of research, she studies visual adaptation, an experience-dependent form of neuroplasticity that Dr. Oruc believes can be used as a way to restore high-level cortical visual function, such as recognition of objects and faces. Indeed, she has shown that visual adaptation produces a temporary benefit, a moment of hypersensitivity, to one’s ability to identify faces. An ongoing large-scale web-based study in her lab investigates the factors underlying the population variance in these adaptation-induced benefits. You can check this experiment out (and even participate) here.
Dr Oruc uses adaptation and other behavioural paradigms to investigate visual dysfunction in autism spectrum disorder (ASD). Her group has recently discovered characteristic signatures of visual abnormalities that help to parse the diverse autism spectrum into true etiological subgroups. Ultimately such visual profiles can be used to improve diagnosis and lead to better treatment options. Dr. Oruc hopes to develop an early detection system for these characteristic visual signatures using EEG. Dr. Oruc also welcomes any collaboration with fellow ICORD researchers in studies that involve EEG recording or visual psychophysical testing.
Please visit her website for more information.
Current Lab Members
| Undergraduate Students | Masters Students | Ph.D. Students | Postdoctoral Fellows |
| Christina Yuan | Parsa Delavari | Todd Kamensek | Dr. Gulcenur Ozturan |
| Suna Yoo | Mahmoud Khademi |
Trainee Awards
| Year | Name | Award |
| 2023 | Dr. Gulce Ozturan | Gerhard Zinser Memorial Travel Travel Grant, ARVO |
| 2022 | Todd Kamensek | Ophthalmology Research Day Best Graduate student presentation, UBC Ophtalmology |
| 2022 | Christina Yuan | SSRP, UBC FoM |
| 2021 | Todd Kamensek | Killam Graduate Teaching Award, UBC |
| 2021 | Todd Kamensek | Demetri Papageorgis Teaching Assistant Award, UBC Psychology |
| 2021 | Anastasia Stolzenberg | SSRP Award, UBC Faculty of Medicine |
| 2021 | Nadia Tarazi | URSA, NSERC |
| 2021 | Tienlan Sun | Selected to Team Canada to compete in the International Science and Engineering Fair (ISEF 2021) (Youth Science Canada) |
| 2020 | Hugo Zylberajch | Globalink GRA (MITAC/PIMS) |
| 2020 | Hugo Zylberajch | Graduate Research Award (PIMS-MITACS Globalink) |
| 2019 | Aaron Berk | Margaret L. Adamson award (UBC Ophthalmology) |
| 2017 | Fakhri Shafai | Margaret L. Adamson award (UBC Ophthalmology) |
| 2017 | Sam Min | NSERC USRA (NSERC) |
| 2017 | Amy Chen | MITACS Globalink award |
| 2016 | Morteza Mousavi | NSERC USRA |
| 2015 | Shyam Murthy | MITACS Globalink award |
| 2014 | Christina Zhang | Summer Student Research Award (UBC Faculty of Medicine) |
| 2014 | Stella (Qishuo) Luo | Globalink International Research Internship (MITACS) |
| 2013 | Fakhri Shafai | Autism Research Training Award (Canadian Institutes of Health Research) |
Recent publications
- Kamensek, T, Iarocci, G, Oruc, I. 2024. Atypical daily visual exposure to faces in adults with autism spectrum disorder.. Curr Biol. doi: 10.1016/j.cub.2024.07.094.
- Delavari, P, Ozturan, G, Yuan, L, Yilmaz, Ö, Oruc, I. 2023. Artificial intelligence, explainability, and the scientific method: A proof-of-concept study on novel retinal biomarker discovery.. PNAS Nexus. doi: 10.1093/pnasnexus/pgad290.
- Kamensek, T, Susilo, T, Iarocci, G, Oruc, I. 2023. Are people with autism prosopagnosic?. Autism Res. doi: 10.1002/aur.3030.
- Berk, A et al.. 2023. Learning from small data: Classifying sex from retinal images via deep learning.. PLoS One. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0289211.
- Hunur, U et al.. 2022. Thiol-disulphide Homeostasıs and Ischemia-modified Albumın Level and its Relatıonshıp with Clınicopathological Features of Breast Cancer.. J Coll Physicians Surg Pak. doi: 10.29271/jcpsp.2022.11.1435.
