28 June 2012, 4 pm
Canynge Hall, Room LG.08
Marcus Munafò was an undergraduate at the University of Oxford, before moving to the University of Southampton to complete an MSc in Health Psychology and a PhD. Following this, he returned to the University of Oxford, as a postdoctoral fellow in the Department of Public Health and Primary Care and later the Department of Clinical Pharmacology. In 2004-2005 he spent 6 months as a Visiting Professor at the University of Pennsylvania. In March 2005 took up a tenured position in the School of Experimental Psychology at the University of Bristol, where he is now Professor of Biological Psychology and leads the Tobacco and Alcohol Research Group, and the Psychopharmacology Research Network.
His research interests are in the integration of multiple research perspectives to understand individual differences in smoking behaviour and, in particular, smoking cessation. This has included substantial work on smoking cessation pharmacogenetics, including analysis of the likely cost-effectiveness of personalised medicine. His research also includes the study of behavioural and neuroimaging correlates of smoking behaviour. He recently contributed material on the genetics of smoking behaviour and smoking cessation pharmacogenetics to the forthcoming Surgeon General’s Report on tobacco-related disease.
In 2004 he was awarded the Society for Research on Nicotine and Tobacco Young Investigator Award, and in 2005 the European College of Neuropsychopharmacology Fellowship Award. He is Past-President of the Society for Research on Nicotine and Tobacco Europe, and serves on the editorial board of several journals, including as Deputy Editor for Nicotine and Tobacco Research, and Senior Editor for Addiction. He serves on the addiction Scientific Advisory Panel for the European College of Neuropsychopharmacology, and has provided consultancy for the European Commission on two working groups, on smokeless tobacco products and tobacco additives. He has also advised the Commission on Human Medicines in the UK.
Synopsis
The ability to identify emotional states in others is central to successful social functioning, and biases in emotion perception have been reported in a range of psychopathologies. We have shown that experimentally-induced biases in the perception of emotional expressions directly influence behaviour and mood. Marcus will discuss a range of experiments on healthy volunteers, individuals with high levels of depressive symptoms, and young people at risk of criminal offending. He will also discuss ongoing work to extend this work into other domains, such as autism spectrum disorders. These techniques have the potential to form the basis of a novel, simple, and effective treatment.
Please contact Charlene for further information.
The seminar is free, and all are welcome without needing to book a place. If you have difficulties with stairs, we have a lift to provide access to the lower ground floor.