Turhan Canli, Ph.D.
Yale University (1993)
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Contact: turhan.canli@stonybrook.edu |
Dr. Turhan Canli plans to admit a new graduate student pending approval of funding. Applicants with a strong background in quantitative skills (fMRI data analysis, machine learning etc.) will likely be most competitive.
I am interested in broader questions relating to the role of neuroscience in society.
In earlier work, first with my colleagues at Stanford and then with my students at Stony Brook and with international collaborators (especially Klaus-Peter Lesch), we conducted the first functional MRI studies on individual differences in subjective emotional experiences [1], personality traits [2, 3], sex differences in emotional memory [4], and the first study on a gene-by-environment interaction related to the serotonin transporter gene polymorphism (HTTLPR) and life stress [5] and related candidate gene studies [6, 7].
More recent work focused on loneliness. Using genome-wide gene expression analysis approaches, we identified more than 1500 genes in the (postmortem) human brain that were differentially expressed as a function of loneliness [8, 9]. Remarkably, these genes also are associated with numerous diseases, possibly creating a link between social isolation and physical illness and decline. We are now interested in whether reducing loneliness in older adults who are at elevated risk for dementia (i.e., those with diagnosed mild cognitive impairment) can slow or even reverse cognitive decline. A related research question addresses the role of loneliness in financial decision-making in older adults. Some of this work aims to develop biomarkers to identify high-risk individuals to develop novel interventions.
Beyond the laboratory, I am interested in the ethical, legal, and societal implications of advances in neuroscience, a field that is called “Neuroethics”. I am a co-founder of the International Neuroethics Society and served on its Executive Board from its inception in 2006 until 2015. In 2017, I earned a Certificate in Global Mental Health: Refugee Trauma and Recovery from Harvard Medical School, which led me to projects focused on refugee mental health and war trauma [10]. For example, in 2018, I conducted a workshop on the neurobiology of trauma for psychiatric staff treating Syrian refugees in Gaziantep, Turkey. Since 2020, I have been serving as Chief Science Officer (pro bono) of the Canadian International Medical Relief Organization (CIMRO), with whom I authored a 2024 report on post-traumatic stress disorder among Syrian civilians in an active war zone [11]. Follow-up work will aim to deliver PTSD treatments to this population and address accountability for war crimes (see next paragraph).
I am a Charles E. Scheidt Faculty Fellow in Atrocity Prevention (Institute for Genocide and Mass Atrocity Prevention, SUNY Binghampton). In that context, my goal is on the prevention of crimes using chemical weapons. I am currently building a network of experts to combine the tools of molecular biology and biomarker-development with international humanitarian and criminal law. The long-term goal is to develop biological “fingerprints” that can serve as lasting evidence of chemical weapons exposure when no other evidence may be available. This initiative is not only about science, but also about justice: by creating an international network of scientists, practitioners, advocates, and human rights leaders, I hope to give survivors a stronger voice and advance accountability where it has long been denied.
Books:
Canli T. Molecular Psychology: Discovering the Mechanisms that regulate Genes, Brains, and Behavior. Routledge (under contract).
Canli T. (Editor). The Oxford Handbook of Molecular Psychology. New York, Oxford: Oxford University Press; 2015.
Canli T. (Editor). Biology of Personality and Individual Differences. New York: Guilford Press; 2006.
Selected Publications:
- Canli, T., et al., Hemispheric asymmetry for emotional stimuli detected with fMRI. Neuroreport, 1998. 9(14): p. 3233-3239.
- Canli, T., et al., An fMRI study of personality influences on brain reactivity to emotional stimuli. Behavioral Neuroscience, 2001. 115(1): p. 33-42.
- Canli, T., et al., Amygdala response to happy faces as a function of extraversion. Science, 2002. 296(5576): p. 2191.
- Canli, T., et al., Sex differences in the neural basis of emotional memories. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, 2002. 99(16): p. 10789-94.
- Canli, T., et al., Neural correlates of epigenesis. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, 2006. 103(43): p. 16033-8.
- Canli, T., et al., Beyond affect: A role for genetic variation of the serotonin transporter in neural activation during a cognitive attention task. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, 2005. 102(34): p. 12224-12229.
- Canli, T. and K.-P. Lesch, Long story short: the serotonin transporter in emotion regulation and social cognition. Nature neuroscience, 2007. 10(9): p. 1103-9.
- Canli, T., et al., Differential transcriptome expression in human nucleus accumbens as a function of loneliness. Molecular psychiatry, 2017. 22(7): p. 1069-1078.
- Canli, T., et al., Loneliness 5 years ante-mortem is associated with disease-related differential gene expression in postmortem dorsolateral prefrontal cortex. Translational Psychiatry, 2018. 8(1): p. 2.
- Canli, T. Refugee Mental Health Through the Lens of Neuroscience and Genetics. EuropeNow, 2017.
- Canli, T., Alassil, B., and Cameron, M. (2024). Self-reported trauma experiences among Syrian civilians in an active war zone. Neuropsychiatric Investigation, 62 (2), 45-54. DOI 10.5152/NeuropsychiatricInvest.2024.23023. Open Access: https://neuropsychiatricinvestigation.org/en/self-reported-trauma-experiences-among-syrian-civilians-in-an-active-war-zone-13666.