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David Hofmann

Possible papers associated with this exact author name in Arrow. This page groups case-insensitive exact name matches and is not a full identity disambiguation profile.

6 papers

1 author row

YNICL Journal 2026 Journal Article

Disrupted thalamocortical functional connectivity and canonical resting-state network integration in posttraumatic stress disorder

Nick Steele
Ahmed Hussain
Delin Sun
Courtney Russell
Ashley A. Huggins
Nicholas D. Davenport
Seth G. Disner
Scott R. Sponheim

The thalamus exhibits widespread connectivity to the entire cortical mantle, yet distinct thalamic subregions possess unique connectivity profiles and functional roles. While the thalamus has been consistently implicated in posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD), fine-grained investigations examining thalamic subregions and nuclei remain sparse. We examined how resting-state functional connectivity (RSFC) of thalamic nuclei with the cortex and large-scale brain networks may contribute to PTSD using high-resolution functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) data from a multi-site dataset of PTSD cases and controls (n = 397). We show that the pulvinar nuclei exhibit weaker RSFC with sensorimotor and salience regions, while the medial geniculate nucleus (MGN) exhibits stronger RSFC with the sensorimotor cortex in PTSD. Greater PTSD severity correlated with weaker RSFC between both the pulvinar and mediodorsal thalamus and cortical sensory/motor regions in the frontal, parietal, and occipital lobes. We identified that the default mode network of PTSD participants had stronger RSFC with the mediodorsal thalamus, while the salience and somatosensory networks exhibited stronger RSFC with somatomotor thalamic nuclei. Fine-grained thalamic mapping is important for uncovering thalamocortical disruptions in PTSD. Thalamic RSFC shows a shift toward heightened subcortical sensory responsivity and diminished voluntary control and cognitive regulation in PTSD.

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YNIMG Journal 2025 Journal Article

Image-based meta- and mega-analysis (IBMMA): A unified framework for large-scale, multi-site, neuroimaging data analysis

Nick Steele
Ashley A. Huggins
Rajendra A. Morey
Ahmed Hussain
Courtney Russell
Benjamin Suarez-Jimenez
Elena Pozzi
Hadis Jameei

The increasing scale and complexity of neuroimaging datasets aggregated from multiple study sites present substantial analytic challenges, as existing statistical analysis tools struggle to handle missing voxel-data, suffer from limited computational speed and inefficient memory allocation, and are restricted in the types of statistical designs they are able to model. We introduce Image-Based Meta- & Mega-Analysis (IBMMA), a novel software package implemented in R and Python that provides a unified framework for analyzing diverse neuroimaging features, efficiently handles large-scale datasets through parallel processing, offers flexible statistical modeling options, and properly manages missing voxel-data commonly encountered in multi-site studies. IBMMA successfully analyzed a large-n dataset of several thousand participants and revealed findings in brain regions that some traditional software overlooked due to missing voxel-data resulting in gaps in brain coverage. IBMMA has the potential to accelerate discoveries in neuroscience and enhance the clinical utility of neuroimaging findings.

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YNIMG Journal 2022 Journal Article

Differential effects of prediction error and adaptation along the auditory cortical hierarchy during deviance processing

Insa Schlossmacher
Jacky Dilly
Ina Protmann
David Hofmann
Torge Dellert
Marie-Luise Roth-Paysen
Robert Moeck
Maximilian Bruchmann

Neural mismatch responses have been proposed to rely on different mechanisms, including prediction error-related activity and adaptation to frequent stimuli. However, the hierarchical cortical structure of these mechanisms is unknown. To investigate this question, we recorded hemodynamic responses while participants (N = 54) listened to an auditory oddball sequence as well as a suited control condition. In addition to effects in sensory processing areas (Heschl's gyrus, superior temporal gyrus (STG)), we found several distinct clusters that indexed deviance processing in frontal and parietal regions (anterior cingulate cortex/supplementary motor area (ACC/SMA), inferior parietal lobule (IPL), anterior insula (AI), inferior frontal junction (IFJ)). Comparing responses to the control stimulus with the deviant and standard enabled us to delineate the contributions of prediction error- or adaptation-related brain activation, respectively. We observed significant effects of adaptation in Heschl's gyrus, STG and ACC/SMA, while prediction error-related activity was observed in STG, IPL, AI and IFJ. Additional dynamic causal modeling confirmed the superiority of a hierarchical processing structure compared to a flat structure. Thus, we found that while prediction-error related processes increased with the hierarchical level of the brain area, adaptation declined. This suggests that the relative contribution of different mechanisms in deviance processing varies across the cortical hierarchy.

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YNICL Journal 2019 Journal Article

Phasic amygdala and BNST activation during the anticipation of temporally unpredictable social observation in social anxiety disorder patients

Benedikt Figel
Leonie Brinkmann
Christine Buff
Carina Y. Heitmann
David Hofmann
Maximilian Bruchmann
Michael P.I. Becker
Martin J. Herrmann

Anticipation of potentially threatening social situations is a key process in social anxiety disorder (SAD). In other anxiety disorders, recent research of neural correlates of anticipation of temporally unpredictable threat suggests a temporally dissociable involvement of amygdala and bed nucleus of the stria terminalis (BNST) with phasic amygdala responses and sustained BNST activation. However, the temporal profile of amygdala and BNST responses during temporal unpredictability of threat has not been investigated in patients suffering from SAD. We used functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) to investigate neural activation in the central nucleus of the amygdala (CeA) and the BNST during anticipation of temporally unpredictable aversive (video camera observation) relative to neutral (no camera observation) events in SAD patients compared to healthy controls (HC). For the analysis of fMRI data, we applied two regressors (phasic/sustained) within the same model to detect temporally dissociable brain responses. The aversive condition induced increased anxiety in patients compared to HC. SAD patients compared to HC showed increased phasic activation in the CeA and the BNST for anticipation of aversive relative to neutral events. SAD patients as well as HC showed sustained activity alterations in the BNST for aversive relative to neutral anticipation. No differential activity during sustained threat anticipation in SAD patients compared to HC was found. Taken together, our study reveals both CeA and BNST involvement during threat anticipation in SAD patients. The present results point towards potentially SAD-specific threat processing marked by elevated phasic but not sustained CeA and BNST responses when compared to HC.

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YNIMG Journal 2018 Journal Article

Early brain responses to affective faces: A simultaneous EEG-fMRI study

Miriam Müller-Bardorff
Maximilian Bruchmann
Martin Mothes-Lasch
Pienie Zwitserlood
Insa Schlossmacher
David Hofmann
Wolfgang Miltner
Thomas Straube

The spatio-temporal neural basis of earliest differentiation between emotional and neutral facial expressions is a matter of debate. The present study used concurrent electroencephalography (EEG) and functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) in order to investigate the ‘when’ and ‘where’ of earliest prioritization of emotional over neutral expressions. We measured event-related potentials (ERPs) and blood oxygen dependent (BOLD) signal changes in response to facial expressions of varying emotional intensity and different valence categories. Facial expressions were presented superimposed by two horizontal bars and participants engaged in a focal bars task (low load, high load), in order to manipulate the availability of attentional resources during face perception. EEG data revealed the earliest expression effects in the P1 range (76–128 ms) as a parametric function of stimulus arousal independent of load conditions. Conventional fMRI data analysis also demonstrated significant modulations as a function of stimulus arousal, independent of load, in amygdala, superior temporal sulcus, fusiform gyrus and lateral occipital cortex. Correspondingly, EEG-informed fMRI analysis revealed a significant positive correlation between single-trial P1 amplitudes and BOLD responses in amygdala and lateral posterior occipital cortex. Our results are in line with the hypothesis of the amygdala as fast responding relevance detector and corresponding effects in early visual face processing areas across facial expressions and load conditions.

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YNIMG Journal 2018 Journal Article

Inter-individual differences in trait anxiety shape the functional connectivity between the bed nucleus of the stria terminalis and the amygdala during brief threat processing

Leonie Brinkmann
Christine Buff
Katharina Feldker
Paula Neumeister
Carina Y. Heitmann
David Hofmann
Maximilian Bruchmann
Martin J. Herrmann

An influential framework suggests that the central nucleus of the amygdala (CeA) is involved in phasic responses to threat, while the bed nucleus of the stria terminalis (BNST) mediates sustained anxiety. However, this model has been questioned, proposing that the role of the BNST is not limited to sustained threat contexts. Rather, amygdala and BNST also seem to work in concert in the processing of discrete and briefly presented threat-related stimuli, likely dependent on inter-individual differences in anxiety. A direct test of this assumption with sufficient experimental power is missing in human research and the degree to which individual differences in trait anxiety moderate phasic responses and functional connectivity of amygdala and BNST during threat processing remains unclear. The current event-related functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) study investigated activation and connectivity of amygdala and BNST, as well as modulating effects of trait anxiety, during processing of briefly presented threat-related relative to neutral standardized pictures in 93 psychiatrically healthy individuals. Both amygdala and BNST activation was increased during presentation of threat-related relative to neutral pictures. Furthermore, functional connectivity between BNST and amygdala in response to threat was positively associated with trait anxiety. These findings suggest that amygdala and BNST form a functional unit during phasic threat processing whereby their connectivity is shaped by inter-individual differences in trait anxiety.

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