• 2015 Promotion (Dr. rer. nat.), Max Planck Institute for Human Cognitive and Brain Sciences, Leipzig

Dissertation: Emotional egocentricity in development and psychopathology

• 2011 - Master in Psychodynamic Developmental Neuroscience, University College London / Yale University

• 2009 - Bachelor in Psychology, University of Buckingham

 

Wissenschaftlicher Werdegang

seit 2026: Wissenschaftlicher Mitarbeiter Freie Universität Berlin - Arbeitsbereich Klinisch-Psychologische Intervention

2018-2025: Wissenschaftlicher Mitarbeiter Charité - Universitätsmedizin Berlin - Institut für Medizinische Psychologie

2016-2018: Research Associate, University College London, Developmental Risk and Resilience Unit (DRRU)

2015-2016: Postdoctoral Researcher, Max Planck Institute for Human Cognitive and Brain Sciences, Social Neuroscience Department

Zur Forschung:

 Forschungsschwerpunkte

• Frühe Stresserfahrungen (z. B. Misshandlung, Trauma) und deren Auswirkungen auf die Entwicklung psychischer und körperlicher Erkrankungen
• Neurobiologische und psychologische Mechanismen erhöhter Krankheitsvulnerabilität (latente Vulnerabilitäten)
• Risiko- und Resilienzpfade in der Entwicklung psychopathologischer Prozesse
• Stress und Resilienz im digitalen Raum (z. B. Social Media) und deren Bedeutung für psychische Gesundheit
• Entwicklung mechanistisch fundierter Präventions- und Interventionsansätze für Hochrisikogruppen
• Multimethodische Untersuchung (z. B. Bildgebung, neuropsychologische Verfahren, psychobiologische Messungen, Ecological Momentary Assessment)

 

Aktuelle Projekte

• BMBF-gefördertes Projekt „Lifespan Interactions between Social Media Use and Mental Health: Key Effects (LIKES)“ im Rahmen des Deutschen Zentrums für Psychische Gesundheit (DZPG, Standort Berlin; Projektleitung: Ferdinand Hoffmann).

Das Projekt untersucht die Zusammenhänge zwischen Social-Media-Nutzung und psychischer Gesundheit über die Lebensspanne, identifiziert zugrunde liegende Risiko- und Resilienzmechanismen und entwickelt darauf basierend individualisierte Interventionsansätze.

Veröffentlichungen in Fachzeitschriften mit Peer-Review

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2026

Karlbauer, V., Domínguez-Baleón, C., Rex-Haffner, M., Namendorf, T., Hoffmann, F., Klawitter, H., ... & Binder, E. B. (2026). From blood to saliva and back: investigating cross-tissue generalisability of epigenetic measures in paediatric samples. Neuroscience Applied, 5, 106830. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.nsa.2025.106830

2025

Entringer, S., Godara, M., Hoffmann, F., Klawitter, H., Winter, S. M., Binder, E. B., ... & Heim, C. (2025). Maltreatment exposure is associated with metabolomic disease risk scores in children. Brain, behavior, and immunity, 106130. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.bbi.2025.106130

Czamara, D., Juntilla, D., Nounu, A., Weihs, A. L., Erhart, M., Maier, L.,..,Hoffmann, F.,. & Binder, E. B. (2025). Epigenomic embedding of childhood adversity links to disease risk and chronic inflammation. medRxiv, 2025-12. https://doi.org/10.64898/2025.12.04.25341605

2024

Hoffmann, F., Linz, R., Steinbeis, N., Bauer, M., Dammering, F., Lazarides, C., ... & Heim, C. (2024). Children with maltreatment exposure exhibit rumination‐like spontaneous thought patterns: association with symptoms of depression, subcallosal cingulate cortex thickness, and cortisol levels. Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry, 65(1), 31-41. https://doi.org/10.1111/jcpp.13853

 Hoffmann, F., & Heim, C. (2024). Emotional Abuse in Childhood and Adolescence: Biological Embedding and Clinical Implications. Praxis der Kinderpsychologie und Kinderpsychiatrie, 73(1), 4-27. https://doi.org/10.13109/prkk.2024.73.1.4

2022

Hoffmann, F. Grosse Wiesmann, C., Singer, T. & Steinbeis, N. (2022). Development of functional network architecture explains changes in children’s altruistically motivated helping. Developmental Science, e13167, 25(2).  https://doi.org/10.1111/desc.13167

 Schulz, C. C., von Klitzing, K., Deserno, L., Sheridan, M. A., Crowley, M. J., Schoett, M. J., Hoffmann, F., Villringer, A, Vrticka, P., & White, L. O., (2022). Emotional maltreatment and neglect impact neural activation upon exclusion in early and mid-adolescence: An event-related fMRI study. Development and Psychopathology, 34(2), 573-585. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0954579421001681                

2021

Puetz, V., Viding, E., Hoffmann, F., Gerin, M., Sharp, M., Rankin, G., Maguire, E., Mechelli, A., & McCrory, E. (2021). Autobiographical memory as a latent vulnerability mechanism following childhood maltreatment: Association with future depression symptoms and prosocial behaviour. Development and Psychopathology, 1-8. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0954579420000504

2018

Hoffmann, F., Viding, E., Puetz, V. B., Gerin, M. I., Sethi, A., Rankin, G., & McCrory, E. J. (2018). Evidence for Depressogenic Spontaneous Thoughts and Altered Resting-State Connectivity in Adolescents With a Maltreatment History. Journal of the American Academy of Child & Adolescent Psychiatry, 57(9), 687-695. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jaac.2018.05.020

Banzhaf*, C., Hoffmann*, F., Kanske, P., Fan, Y., Walter, H., Spengler, S., Schreiter, S., Singer, T., & Bermpohl, F. (2018). Interacting and dissociable effects of alexithymia and depression on empathy. Psychiatry Research, 270, 631-638. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.psychres.2018.10.045

 *shared first authorship

Sethi, A., McCrory, E., Puetz, V., Hoffmann, F., Knodt, A. R., Radtke, S. R., Brigidi, B. D., Hariri, A., & Viding, E. (2018). Primary and secondary variants of psychopathy in a volunteer sample are associated with different neurocognitive mechanisms. Biological Psychiatry: Cognitive Neuroscience and Neuroimaging, 3(12), 1013-1021. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.bpsc.2018.04.002

2017

Gerin, M. I., Puetz, V. B., Blair, R. J. R., White, S., Sethi, A., Hoffmann, F., Palmer, A. L., Viding, E., & McCrory, E. J. (2017). A neurocomputational investigation of reinforcement-based decision making as a candidate latent vulnerability mechanism in maltreated children. Development and Psychopathology, 29(5), 1689-1705. https://doi.org/10.1017/S095457941700133X

Hoffmann, F., Puetz, V. B., Viding, E., Sethi, A., Palmer, A., & McCrory, E. J. (2017). Risk-taking, peer-influence and child maltreatment: a neurocognitive investigation. Social Cognitive and Affective Neuroscience, 13(1), 124-134. https://doi.org/10.1093/scan/nsx124

2016

Hoffmann, F., Koehne, S., Steinbeis, N., Dziobek, I., & Singer, T. (2016). Preserved self-other distinction during empathy in autism is linked to network integrity of right supramarginal gyrus. Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders, 46(2), 637-648. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10803-015-2609-0

Hoffmann, F., Banzhaf, C., Kanske, P., Gärtner, M., Bermpohl, F., & Singer, T. (2016). Empathy in depression: Egocentric and altercentric biases and the role of alexithymia. Journal of Affective Disorders, 199, 23-29. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jad.2016.03.007

Hoffmann, F., Banzhaf, C., Kanske, P., Bermpohl, F., & Singer, T. (2016). Where the depressed mind wanders: Self-generated thought patterns as assessed through experience sampling as a state marker of depression. Journal of Affective Disorders, 198, 127-134. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jad.2016.03.005

2015

Hoffmann, F., Singer, T., & Steinbeis, N. (2015). Children’s increased emotional egocentricity compared to adults is mediated by their difficulties in conflict processing. Child Development, 86, 765-780. https://doi.org/10.1111/cdev.12338

2014

Vander Wyk, B. C., Hoffmann, F., & Pelphrey, K. A. (2014). Equivalent neural responses in children and adolescents with and without autism during judgments of affect. Developmental Cognitive Neuroscience, 8, 121-130. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.dcn.2013.08.001

2011

Weirich, S., Hoffmann, F., Meißner, L., Heinz, A., Bengner, T. (2011). Sex Influence on Face Recognition Memory Moderated by Presentation Duration and Reencoding. Neuropsychology, 25, 806-813. https://doi.org/10.1037/a0025633

In Veröffentlichung 

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Hoffmann, F., Bentz, L., Buss, C., Winter, S., Entringer, S., & Heim, C. (submitted). Seeing the Positive in the Face of Adversity: Neurocognitive Markers of Risk and Resilience in Emotional Conflict Processing in Children With Maltreatment Exposure.

Mohn, J.J., Bauer, M., Hoffmann, F., Rasmussen, J. Fair, D., Entringer, S., Winter, S.M., Buss, C., & Heim, C. (submitted). Maltreatment Predicts Centiles of Individual Variation from Normative Brain Growth in Children.