

OBJECTIVE
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I am looking to continue my career in academia, teaching students and researching social and affective neuroscience topics.
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PROFILE
I completed my PhD at Liverpool John Moores University in the field of cognitive neuroscience. I completed this as part of the Somatosensory and Affective Neuroscience team (SomAffect). Since finishing my PhD I have been working as a Lecturer in Psychology covering maternity. Now I am working on a clinical trial at Linköping University looking at a novel pharmacological treatment for PTSD.
My academic and employment history have helped me develop a strong understanding of research methods, as well as effective communication and confidence in teaching and research within many areas in psychology and neuroscience.
RESEARCH INTERESTS
Pharmacology, Affect, sociability, sensation, pain and pleasure, pain modulation, motivation, reward, EEG, individual differences, autism spectrum disorders.
SKILLS
COMPUTER/IT:
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Microsoft Word, PowerPoint, Excel, Adobe, SPSS, Matlab, PsychoPy, E-Prime
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SURVEYS:
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Qualtrics, Google Forms, Redcap, Gorilla
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DATA ANALYSIS:
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R, SPSS, MATLAB, EEGlab, SPM
RESEARCH:
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Physiological measures of affect (facial EMG) and arousal (ECG, GSR). Psychophysics (manual/robotic touch, QST). Cognitive testing using E-Prime/PsychoPy
BRAIN IMAGING:
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Electroencephalogram (EEG)
fMRI
COMMUNICATION:
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English native speaker, excellent verbal and written skills, experience writing research proposals, grant applications, academic writing.
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TEACHING:
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Marking, assessment, planning seminars, exam invigilation, lectures, project supervision, RA supervision.
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DRIVING:
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Full, clean UK driving license
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OTHER:
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Ability to prioritise workload and meet deadlines, ability to work independently and as part of a research/academic team
C.V. Connor Haggarty
EDUCATION
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Ph.D. in Cognitive Neuroscience, Liverpool John Moores University
(2014 – 2018)
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Thesis title: Individual differences in the behavioural and physiological responses to affective touch.
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Thesis advisors: Dr Susannah Walker, Dr David Moore, Prof Francis McGlone.
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I investigated The role that individual differences in trait sociability played in the behavioural and physiological responses to social/affective touch. I am in the process of responding to reviewers comments for my first PhD publication study. Two further studies are under review and I have two manuscripts in preparation (one from my PhD and one from my Postdoc).
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These studies employed a range of techniques from psychophysics, to electromyography and electroencephalography. Here I also used a range of statistical techniques to measure the trend of participant responses across different touch types and across a range of autistic traits
M.Sc. In Cognitive Neuroscience, Aston University
(2013 – 2014)
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Dissertation topic: to determine the impact of alexithymia on an individual’s affective quality and detail and subsequent midline frontal theta for autobiographical memories and episodic future thinking.
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Dissertation advisors: Dr Nathan Ridout & Prof Adrian Burgess
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Modules included: advanced statistics, advanced neuroscientific methods, Cognitive Neuroscience, advanced EEG and MEG for neuroscience.
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B.Sc. (Hons) in Psychology with Neuropsychology, Bangor University
(2008 – 2011)
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Dissertation topic: using EEG to determine the specificity of the n170 for processing faces compared to cars.
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Dissertation advisor: Prof Guillaume Thierry
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Modules included: cognitive neuroscience, research methods, cognitive neuroscience and the visual arts, the clinical and cognitive neuroscience of vision, cognitive and biological psychology, developmental psychology.
Teaching & Work Experience
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Lecturer in Psychology (maternity) x2, Liverpool John Moores University (Jan 19 – Aug 20)
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Here I was tasked with teaching mostly cognitive/biological psychology modules. I have taught specialist seminars at on somatosensation along with a number of lectures on neuroanatomy and the biological foundations of behaviour.
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Along with this I have taught key psychological skills such as critical thinking and academic writing to first and second year students.
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I assessed a variety of work, which included liaising with both students and module leaders and following established marking criteria to ensure fairness and reliability.
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I supervised research projects for BSc and MSc courses.
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I was module convenor for second year Cognitive and Biological Psychology.
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I sat on the psychology ethics panel.
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EEG Workshop Organiser, Liverpool John Moores University (Jul 2019)
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I designed, organised and ran a day long workshop course for PhD/ECRs to learn EEG.
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In this course I ran through the physics and biology associated with EEG as an introduction leading into a practical demonstration of the setup and clean data collection process.
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In the second half of the session, attendees were given a mock data set and the stages involved in data cleaning, extraction and presenting were taught to them.
Postdoctoral Research Fellow Linköping University (Sept 2020-Feb 2022)
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Running a clinical trial looking at the use of a novel FAAH inhibitor and e-CBT prolonged exposure treatment for PTSD.
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Sessions include, fRMI and lab based sessions. The latter include physiological measures and blood draws for a series of tasks including a fear conditioning, affect and a stress task.
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Training medical students/researchers to run the study
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Postdoctoral Research Fellow - University of Chicago (Feb 2022 - Present)
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Analysis of EEG data from previous studies
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Development and running of new studies around the broad topic of social psychopharmacology.
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Training and management of research assistants and students.
Professional Memberships & Awards
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Associate Fellow of Advance HE (formerly the Higher Education Academy) – Teaching Accreditation (Sep 2016)
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Society for Social Neuroscience - member
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S4SN - Committee for Open Science - member​
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Liverpool Neuroscience Group - member
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British Association of Cognitive Neuroscience - member
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International Association for the Study of Affective Touch - member
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European Behavioural Pharmacology Society - member
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Full PhD scholarship (2014– 2018)
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Postdoctoral Fellowship Award Linköpings Universitet (Sept 2020)
Conferences & Presentations
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British Psychological Society (May 15)
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Poster Presentation
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British Association of Cognitive Neuroscience (Sept 15)
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Poster Presentation
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International Association for the Study of Affective Touch (Sep 17)
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Oral Presentation
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Liverpool Neuroscience Day (Jun 19)
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Oral Presentation
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European Behavioural Pharmacology Society (Jul 21)
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Poster and Oral Presentation
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Society for Social Neuroscience (Dec 21)​
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Symposium Chair/Oral Presentation​
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REFEREES
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Dr Susannah Walker
(PhD Director of Studies)
Reader in Behavioural Neuroscience,
School of Psychology, Liverpool John Moores University
T: +44 151 904 6309
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Dr Leah Mayo
(Pi Postdoc 1)
Parker Psychedelic Research Chair
University of Calgary
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Prof. Harriet de Wit
(Pi Postdoc 2)
Professor of Psychiatry and Behavioral Neuroscience
University of Chicago
E: hdew@uchicago,edu
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Prof. Helen Poole
(Former Line Manager, Teaching)
Reader in Applied Health Psychology,
School of Psychology, Liverpool John Moores University
T: 0151 904 6307
Training & Workshops
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Electroencephalogram (EEG) training, Prof Stephen Luck (May 2016)
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Matlab for the social sciences training, Prof Antonia Hamilton(Aug 2016)
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Research Ethics training (Jan 2015)
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Equality & Diversity in the Workplace training (Feb 2019)
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Academic Writing & Blogging workshop (Nov 2014)
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Effective Presentations workshop (Nov 2014)
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3i’s, Information, Ideas & Insights (teacher training) (Sep 2016)
Selected Publications​
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Haggarty, C. J., Malinowski, P. M., McGlone, F. P. & Walker, S. C. (2020). Autistic traits modulate cortical responses to affective but not discriminative touch. European Journal of Neuroscience.
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Akkus, F., Terbeck, S., Haggarty, C., Treyer, V., Dietrich, J., Hornschuh, S. & Hasler, G. (2020). The role of the metabotropic glutamate receptor 5 in nicotine addiction. CNS Spectrums
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Haggarty, et al. (2021). Vicarious Ratings of Social Touch the effect of age and autistic traits. Scientific Reports. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-021-98802-2
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Haggarty, C. J., Trotter, P. D., McGlone, F.P. & Walker, S. C. (2021). Children’s vicarious ratings of social touch are tuned to the velocity but not the location of a caress. PlosOne https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0256303
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Haggarty, C. J., Makdani, A. & McGlone, F. P. Behavioural measures of affective touch, in Holmes. N. & Waltz. W., Somatosensory Research Methods (under review).
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Haggarty, C. J., Morrison, I., Asratian, A., Heilig, M. & Mayo, L. (in prep). Endocannabinoid modulation of affective response to vicariously experienced touch.