Themis Nikolas Efthimiou

As a PhD candidate, I designed and conducted experiments using facial Neuromuscular Electrical Stimulation (fNMES), analysing data and presenting findings in journal publications and conferences. My contributions to this project spanned from safeguarding its data to ensuring its smooth sailing at every turn. I devised and implemented robust data storage systems, ensuring both raw and processed research data remained secure and accessible. To ensure the project’s success, I also played a key part in participant recruitment, developing comprehensive protocols, outlining clear procedures for data collection and analysis, and ensuring adherence to ethical and regulatory guidelines. Finally, in this interdisciplinary project, a key objective was to maintain constant communication, update collaborators, and incorporate their feedback into the work. As a reuslt of this period I have published three first-author papers and one co-authored publication. His work contributes to understanding fNMES in investigating proprioceptive feedback on emotional experiences and affective stimuli recognition.

Throughout my MSc by research, my thesis delved into exploring the impact of covert attention on the visual perception of human versus non-human movement. I took on the responsibility of skillfully designing and executing the experiment, encompassing tasks such as participant recruitment and the utilisation of electroencephalography (EEG) for data collection. The EEG data recorded during the experiment served as the basis for detailed time-frequency analysis. Additionally, my proficiency extended to thorough data analysis and visualisation techniques. The entire research process, from experimental design to participant recruitment, EEG implementation, data analysis, and visualisation, culminated in a comprehensive write-up that encapsulated the findings and implications of the study.

I presented at the Emotions conference in Tilburg, Netherlands, as one of five speakers in the symposium titled “Re-Examining the Facial Feedback Hypothesis: Investigating Emotion Induction through Functional Neuromuscular Electrical Stimulation (fNMES) of Facial Muscles.” During my talk, I shared empirical research findings on the impact of fNMES-induced smiling and frowning on emotion perception and state.

I’m excited to announce that I recently had the opportunity to present my PhD research at the prestigious International Organisation of Psychologiology (IOP) 2023 in Geneva! This symposium brings together leading researchers from around the world to discuss the latest advancements in the field of psychophysiology, and I was honored to be among them.

I joined a group of wonderful researchers to organise a symposium at ESCAN 2022.

At the PRSC 2020, I presented a poster displaying the findings of my MSc thesis. I was awarded the prize for best poster presentation.

I presented a poster at the British Association of Cognitive Neuroscience conference in 2019. The poster was titled “Exploring the role of spatial attention in movement simulation”.