Naomi Heffer

Personal statement

Naomi is a Lecturer in Psychology whose current work is focused mainly on the second year Research Methods module of the BSc Psychology course.

Her research interests are focused on the cognitive mechanisms underlying mood and stress-related disorders, including anxiety, depression and post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). She is particularly interested in individual differences in social perception, such as differences in emotion processing from facial expressions, and uses behavioural tasks, neuroimaging and other physiological measures to address her research questions. She is also a keen science communicator and promoter of public engagement, having spent three months working in the digital team at The Royal Institution in London, and producing blogs, videos and podcasts for her science communication website SENSE(LESS).

Previously, she received a first-class BA in Neuroscience from the University of Oxford, during which time she also worked as part of an international task force on lithium treatment for bipolar disorder. Her undergraduate dissertation focused on how using non-invasive brain stimulation can affect the brain’s oscillatory activity and the excitability of cortical neurons.

She recently completed her PhD under the supervision of Dr Karin Petrini and Dr Chris Ashwin from the University of Bath, and Professors Anke Karl and Krasimira Tsaneva-Atanasova from the University of Exeter. The focus of her thesis was on multisensory emotion perception, and how multisensory processes may be altered in individuals with high trait anxiety and PTSD.

Academic qualifications

• BA (Hons) Neuroscience, St Hugh's College, University of Oxford
• PhD Psychology, University of Bath

Teaching subjects

• Clinical Psychology
• Cognitive Psychology
• Statistics and research methods