Dr Rhiannon Mae Armitage
Postdoctoral Researcher and Academic Content Facilitator
I'm an interdisciplinary researcher at the University of Sussex, working on a 4-day week interventional trial alongside projects in the broader areas of ingestive behaviour, biological and occupational psychology. This includes co-investigating the use of novel technology to monitor eating behaviour while teaching, delivering outreach programmes and co-supervising UG, MSc, and placement students.
Research Interests
My current research investigates how a four-day working week changes biological health, such as immune function, and lifestyle factors, such as diet, mental health, and sleep. I am also leading analyses of how employment interacts with diet, physical, and mental health in the UK Biobank using a big data approach. Alongside this, I am a co-investigator exploring the use of novel technology for monitoring eating behaviour and weight loss.
I continue to work on projects related to the behavioural, genetic and neural basis of individual differences in liking for sweet tastes as a marker of risk for developing obesity. Drawing on methods from genetics, psychology, nutrition, and neuroscience such as body composition analysis, functional magnetic resonance imaging and twin modelling.
I am also interested in all things ingestive behaviour-related, well-being and wider sensory responses, including multisensory processing. I have previously worked on projects investigating Synaesthesia, brain plasticity and cross-modal responses following sight restoration and, most recently, a Leverhulme Trust grant on the behavioural and neural basis of odour-taste associations.
Most Recent Publications
Padmanabhan, A., Stankoski, S., Panchevski, F., Armitage, R.M., ... & Yeomans, M.R. (2025). Validating OCOsense Smart Glasses in a Three-Week Home-based Study: Assessing Detection of Eating, Food Identification and the Use of Haptic Feedback to Aid Behaviour Modification. Under review.
Armitage, R.M., Stankoski, S., Sazdov, B., Padmanabhan, A., Harvey, T., Baert, C., Gjoreski, H., Nduka, C., & Yeomans, M.R. (2025). Sensing the Future of Eating Behaviour Measurement: Validation of OCOsense Glasses to Detect Chewing Behaviour. In publication.
Armitage, R.M., Iatridi, V., Gaysina, D., Tuorila, H., Yeomans, M.R., Kaprio, J.K. & Zellers, S. (2025). Genetic and Environmental Influences on Sweet Taste Liking and Related Traits: New Insights from Twin Cohorts. Behaviour Genetics, 55, 407–421. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10519-025-10232-2