Michael Connaughton

Experienced educator with focus on higher education and curriculum development. Capable of designing engaging coursework and fostering inclusive learning environment. Specialises in leveraging innovative teaching methods to promote critical thinking and academic excellence.

• Neuroscience Ireland (2019 – Present)
• Flux Society (2025 - Present)
• International Society of Tractography (2024 – Present)
• Organization for Human Brain Mapping (2020)
• The Psychological Society of Ireland (2017)
• The British Psychological Society (2017)

• Connaughton, M., Leemans, A., Silk, T., Anderson. V., O'Hanlon, E., Whelan, R., & McGrath, J. (2025). The limbic system white matter in children and adolescents with Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity disorder: A longitudinal diffusion magnetic resonance imaging analysis. Biological Psychiatry: Cognitive Neuroscience and Neuroimaging. (In Press).
• Mitchell, O., Roddy, D. W., & Connaughton, M
• . (2025). Early life adversity and white matter microstructural organization-a systematic review. Brain imaging and behavior.
• Connaughton, M., Leemans, A., Paterson, J., O'Hanlon, E., … & McGrath, J. (2024). The limbic system in children and adolescents with Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity disorder: A longitudinal structural magnetic resonance imaging analysis. Biological Psychiatry: Global Open Science.
• Connaughton, M
• Leemans, A., O'Hanlon, E., & McGrath, J. (2023). Longitudinal Analysis of Diffusion MRI Data. In Methods for analyzing large neuroimaging datasets. Springer Nature.
• Whelan, R., O'Hanlon, E., & McGrath, J. (2022). White matter microstructure in children and adolescents with ADHD. NeuroImage. Clinical, 33, 102957. DOI:
• Connaughton, M., O'Hanlon, E., & McGrath, J. (2022). White matter microstructure in autism. In The Neuroscience of Autism (pp. 127-156). Academic Press.
• Connaughton, M., Mitchell, O., & Roddy, D. (2025). Impact of bullying on brain development: A longitudinal structural magnetic resonance imaging study from adolescence to early adulthood. BioRxiv. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1101/2024.09.11.611600 (Under Peer Review in Translational Psychiatry).
• Mitchell, O., Roddy, D., & Connaughton, M
• . (2025). The utility of early life adversity questionnaires in neuroimaging research: Challenged in uncovering neurobiological mechanisms. (Under Peer Review in Neuroscience and Biobehavioural Reviews).
• Connaughton, M., Mitchell, O., & Roddy, D. (2025). Impact of Bullying on Brain Development: A Longitudinal Structural Magnetic Resonance Imaging Study from Adolescence to Early Adulthood. Neuroscience Ireland. August 2025.
• Connaughton, M., O'Hanlon, E., Whelan, R., & McGrath, J. (2024). Utilizing Diffusion MRI for Biomarker Identification in Neurodevelopmental Research. RCSI. Research day. March 2024.
• Imaging Interest Group, Trinity College Institute of Neuroscience, Ireland Workshop on Using ExploreDTI for dMRI Analyses, June 2025.
• Deakin University, Australia Limbic System Development in Children and Adolescents with Attention Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder: A Longitudinal Multimodal MRI Analysis, March 2025.
• Department of Psychiatry, RCSI, Ireland Impact of Bullying on Brain Development: A Longitudinal Structural Magnetic Resonance Imaging Study from Adolescence to Early Adulthood. February 2025.
• Harvard Medical School, United States Utilizing Diffusion MRI for Biomarker Identification in Neurodevelopmental Research, March 2023.
• Ismail, L., Roddy, D., & Connaughton, M. Bullying, brain development, and psychopathology: Exploring mediation effects using longitudinal structural MRI data. RCSI Research Day. March 2025.
• Mitchell, O., Connaughton, M., & Roddy, D. Early life adversity and brain development: A longitudinal study. RCSI Research Day. March 2025.
• Riaz, S., Roddy, D., & Connaughton, M. Functional connectivity changes in the Default Mode Network during rumination in depression. RCSI Research Day. March 2025.
• Bond, L., McTiernan, D., Connaughton, M., Heron, E., Coogan, A.N., & McGrath, J. Sleep problems in children and adolescents with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) in an ADHD specialist service in Ireland. ESCAPE July 2022.
• Connaughton, M., Leemans, A., Silk, T., O'Hanlon, E., Whelan, R., & McGrath, J. Longitudinal structural connectivity in ADHD: The developmental trajectory of the limbic lobe. Neuroscience Ireland 2021. September 2021.
• Boyle, R., Connaughton, M., McGlinchey, E., Knight, S. P., …, & Whelan, R. Connectome-based predictive modeling of cognitive reserve. Alzheimer's Association International Conference. July 2021.
• Connaughton, M., & Holleran, L. White matter microstructure and working memory in schizophrenia patients and healthy controls. University of Galway, Psychology Annual Research Day. July 2018.

• 2025 Module and Assessment Development, 4th Year Psychiatry (RCSI)
• 2025 Guest Lecture Human Neuroimaging Module (University of Galway)
• 2024 Teaching Assistant: ExploreDTI: Diffusion MRI Workshop Queens University Belfast
• 2021-23 Teaching Assistant: Human Development, Behavioral Science & Ethics (TCD)
• 2021-22 Teaching Assistant: Statistics and Methodology in Python (TCD)

• Ph.D. Candidate, Department of Psychiatry, RCSI (2023–present) Supervising a PhD project on early-life trauma and brain development (late adolescence to early adulthood) using multimodal MRI.
• MD Candidate, Department of Psychiatry, RCSI (2024–present) Supervising an resting-state fMRI project on Default Mode Network connectivity during rumination in depression.
• MSc Student, Department of Psychiatry, RCSI & Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam. (2025) Supervising an Erasmus MSc project on bullying, brain development, and psychopathology using longitudinal structural MRI, with focus on mediation analysis.

• Supervision Completed Epigeum: Supervising Doctoral Studies, Second Edition, focused on effective mentorship practices for doctoral research supervision.
• Multimodal MRI Analysis Experienced in the preprocessing, quality control, and analysis of structural MRI using FreeSurfer, diffusion MRI using ExploreDTI, and functional MRI using SPM. Published peer-reviewed research across all three MRI modalities, demonstrating expertise in both technical processing and applied neuroimaging.
• MRI Processing Software Proficient in Bash scripting for the development and testing of sMRI pipelines on the Trinity High-Performance Computing Network. Authored and published a MATLAB step-by-step guide for diffusion tensor imaging (DTI) processing of OpenNeuro data, available in the appendices of a peer-reviewed protocol on Springer.
• Statistical Programming and Data Analysis Developed and implemented R-based workflows for the analysis of large-scale longitudinal datasets, with code publicly available on GitHub. Delivered instruction in statistics and research methodology using Python at Trinity College Dublin.

• Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland, Dublin, Dublin, Republic of Ireland
• Trinity College Dublin, Dublin, Dublin, Republic of Ireland
• University of Galway, Galway, Galway, Republic of Ireland
• Columbia University Medical Center, New York, NY, United States

• Psychiatry Research Award, Royal Academy of Medicine, Ireland, 2024-01-01
• Best Oral Presentation, Young researcher symposium: Neuroscience Ireland, 2022-01-01
• Young Researcher Award, ADHD World Congress, Prague, Czech Republic, 2020-01-01

• The limbic system white matter in children and adolescents with Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity disorder: A longitudinal diffusion magnetic resonance imaging analysis, Connaughton, M., Leemans, A., Silk, T., Anderson. V., O'Hanlon, E., Whelan, R., & McGrath, J., Biological Psychiatry: Cognitive Neuroscience and Neuroimaging, In Press, 2025-01-01
• Early life adversity and white matter microstructural organization-a systematic review, Mitchell, O., Roddy, D. W., & Connaughton, M
• ., Brain imaging and behavior, 2025-01-01
• The limbic system in children and adolescents with Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity disorder: A longitudinal structural magnetic resonance imaging analysis, Connaughton, M., Leemans, A., Paterson, J., O'Hanlon, E., … , & McGrath, J., Biological Psychiatry: Global Open Science, 2024-01-01
• Longitudinal Analysis of Diffusion MRI Data, Connaughton, M
• ., Leemans, A., O'Hanlon, E., & McGrath, J., In Methods for analyzing large neuroimaging datasets, Springer Nature, 2023-01-01
• White matter microstructure in children and adolescents with ADHD, Connaughton, M
• ., Whelan, R., O'Hanlon, E., & McGrath, J., NeuroImage. Clinical, 33, 102957, 2022-01-01
• White matter microstructure in autism, Connaughton, M., O'Hanlon, E., & McGrath, J., The Neuroscience of Autism, 127-156, Academic Press, 2022-01-01
• The neuroscience of compassion: a scoping review of the literature on the neuroscience of compassion and compassion-related therapies, Kamal, H., Mitchell, O., O'Doherty, C., Delaney, L., O'Connor, M., O'Hora, E., Connaughton, M … Behan, C., Irish Journal of Psychological Medicine, 2025-01-01
• Sleep problems in children and adolescents with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) in an ADHD specialist service in Ireland, Bond, L., McTiernan, D., Connaughton, M., Heron, E., Coogan, A.N., & McGrath, J., Irish Journal of Psychological Medicine, 2023-01-01
• Connectome-based predictive modeling of cognitive reserve using task-based functional connectivity, Boyle, R., Connaughton, M., McGlinchey, E., Knight, S.P., De Looze, C., Carey, D., …, & Whelan, R., European Journal of Neuroscience, 2023-01-01
• Connectome-based predictive modeling of cognitive reserve, Boyle, R., Connaughton, M., McGlinchey, E., Knight, S.P., De Looze, C., Carey, D., Stern, Y., Robertson, I.H., Kenny, R.A. and Whelan, R., Alzheimer's Dement., 17, e057654, 2021-01-01

• Dr. Darren Roddy, Senior Clinical Lecturer, Department of Psychiatry, RCSI
• Prof. Alexander Leemans, Associate Professor, Image Sciences Institute, University Medical Centre Utrecht, Netherlands