Site: Old Road Campus
Research Building: Old Road Campus Research Building
Dr Birtan Demirel is a Postdoctoral Research Associate in the Bioelectronic Circuits & Systems Laboratory within the Institute of Biomedical Engineering and the MRC Brain Network Dynamics Unit at the University of Oxford, working with Prof Timothy Denison.
Birtan earned an MSc in Psychology, Neuroscience and Human Sciences from the University of Pavia, Italy, completing his master’s research at the University Medical Center Goettingen, Germany, where he used real-time MRI to investigate the articulatory movements of people who stutter. He then received a DPhil in Experimental Psychology from Oxford for his thesis Neural and Psychological Correlates of Stuttering. Both his doctoral work and his current postdoctoral position are funded by the Dominic Barker Trust.
His research has been recognised with the Best Poster Award at the International Speech Motor Control Conference, an speaking invitation at the Royal Society, London, and BBC News coverage of the novel method to improve speech fluency during public speaking.
During his doctoral studies, Birtan held a Graduate Development Scholarship at St Anne’s College, Oxford, where he taught Neurophysiology and Behavioural Neuroscience and worked as a Research Assistant in Informatics Engineering.
Dr Birtan Demirel works on stuttering, which is a speech fluency disorder affecting around 80 million people worldwide. Stuttering presents a fascinating paradox: fluent in thought, yet disruptions in speech. Even more intriguing, people who stutter may articulate complex ideas with complete fluency when there is no communicative intent, still may struggle to say their own name in public
His research examines the stuttering phenomenon in two stages. In the first stage, he focuses on identifying the neural and psychological correlates of stuttering. He uses functional MRI, magnetoencephalography (MEG) and computational modelling to map the dynamics of speech-related neural circuits and pinpoint where and how disruptions occur, as well as what distinguishes stuttered utterances from fluent ones.
In the second stage, he translates these findings into therapeutic tools for people who want to work on their fluency and reduce social anxiety. He develops and tests pioneering technologies that combine non-invasive brain stimulation with artificial intelligence, augmented reality glasses and immersive virtual reality. His aim is to make these interventions accessible through clinical services, including the UK National Health Service.
Bioelectronic circuits and systems (Prof Tim Denison)
Birtan Demirel, Jennifer Chesters, Emily L Connally, Patricia M Gough, David Ward, Peter Howell, Kate E Watkins, No evidence of altered language laterality in people who stutter across different brain imaging studies of speech and language, Brain Communications, Volume 6, Issue 5, 2024, fcae305, https://doi.org/10.1093/braincomms/fcae305
Professor Tim Denison - Academic