Maximilian König, PhD

Maximilian König, PhD
Postdoctoral Research Fellow, Children's Hospital Los Angeles

I am a developmental psychologist and cognitive neuroscientist with over 12 years of international research experience across Germany, the United Kingdom, the Netherlands, and the United States. My research examines how early-life environmental exposures, ranging from environmental toxicants to social and structural stressors, shape brain development and influence trajectories of mental health risk and resilience in young people.

I received my BSc in Psychology from Goethe University Frankfurt (2017), my MSc in Cognitive Neuroscience from University College London (2018), and my PhD in Psychology (Developmental Psychopathology) from Leiden University (2025). I have also conducted research at New York University and the University of Oxford, investigating neural and cognitive mechanisms underlying age-related changes in learning and decision-making. More information about my previous research experience can be found here.

My academic CV is available here.

My resume is available here.

Email: koenig_maximilian@outlook.com

LinkedIn • Bluesky • Google Scholar • OSF • ORCID

Publications

Publications prior to summer 2023 appear under the name Scheuplein
* denotes equal author contribution; trainees working under my mentorship are underlined

9. König, M., Smith, A. J., Moreno-López, L., Davidson, E., Dauvermann, M., Orellana, S., McCormick, E. M., Peris, T. S., Kaser, M., Ioannidis, K., & van Harmelen, A-L. (2025). Friendship buffering effects on mental health symptoms before and during the COVID-19 pandemic: a UK longitudinal study of young people with childhood adversity. Development and Psychopathology, 1-16
Article • Open Access Resources

8. König, M., Berhe, O., Ioannidis, K., Orellana, S., Davidson, E., Kaser, M., Raise Consortium, Moreno-López, L., & van Harmelen, A-L. (2023). The stress-buffering role of friendships in young people with childhood threat experiences: a preliminary report. European Journal of Psychotraumatology, 14:2, 2281971
Article • Open Access Resources

7. Nussenbaum, K.*, Martin, R. E.*, Maulhardt, S., Yang, Y., Bizzell-Hatcher, G., Bhatt, N. S., König, M., Rosenbaum, G. M., O'Doherty, J. P., Cockburn, J., Hartley, C. A. (2023). Novelty and uncertainty differentially drive exploration across development. eLife, 12:e84260
Article • Open Access Resources

6. González-García, N.*, Buimer, E. L.*, Moreno-López, L., Sallie, S. N., Váša, F., Lim, S., Romero-Garcia, R., Scheuplein, M., Whitaker, K. J., Jones, P. B., Dolan, R. J., Fonagy, P., Goodyer, I., Bullmore, E. T., van Harmelen, A-L., NSPN consortium (2023). Resilient functioning is associated with altered structural brain network topology in adolescents exposed to childhood adversity. Development and Psychopathology, 1-11
Article

5. Scheuplein, M., Ahmed, S. P., Foulkes, L., Griffin, C., Chierchia, G., & Blakemore, S-J. (2023). Perspective taking and memory for self- and town-related information in male adolescents and young adults. Cognitive Development, 67, 101356
Article

4. Wittmann, M. K.*, Scheuplein, M.*, Gibbons, S. G., & Noonan, M. P. (2023). Local and global reward learning in the lateral frontal cortex show differential development during human adolescence. PLoS Biology, 21(3)
Article

3. Saragosa-Harris, N.*, Chaku, N.*, MacSweeney, N.*, Williamson, V. G.*, Scheuplein, M., Feola, B., ... & Mills, K. (2022). A practical guide for researchers and reviewers using the ABCD Study and other large longitudinal datasets. Developmental Cognitive Neuroscience, 55(6)
Article

2. Scheuplein, M. & van Harmelen, A-L. (2022). The importance of friendships in reducing brain responses to stress in adolescents exposed to childhood adversity: a
pre-registered systematic review. Current Opinion in Psychology, 45(6)
Article • Open Access Resources

1. Nussenbaum, K., Scheuplein, M., Phaneuf C. V., Evans, M. D., & Hartley C. A. (2020). Moving developmental research online: comparing in-lab and web-based studies of model-based reinforcement learning. Collabra: Psychology, 6(1)
Article • Open Access Resources

Book Chapters

2. Vermeulen, S., Scheuplein, M., van Harmelen, A-L., Alink, L. (2023). Kindermishandeling: Impact op slachtoffer en maatschappij. Handboek Slachtoffers
Chapter

1. Scheuplein, M., Vermeulen, S., van Harmelen, A-L., & Alink, L. (2023). Child maltreatment and victimization. Handbook of Clinical Neurology: Brain and Crime 197,
147-160
Chapter

PhD Dissertation

1. König, M. (2025). Friendship stress buffering in young people with childhood adversity. Leiden University
Dissertation

Preprints

* denotes equal author contribution; trainees working under my mentorship are underlined

2. Buimer, E.*, König, M.*, Wessels, P., Dorsman, H., Haverhals, A., THRIVE Consortium, Bos, P., Will, G-J., & van Harmelen, A-L. (2025). Friendship buffering and autobiographical memory specificity in young people with childhood adversity. PsyArXiv
Preprint

1. König, M., Buimer, E., Wessels, P., Quist, R., Verspeelt, E., Rius Ottenheim, N., van der Wee, N., van der Werff, S., Bos, P., Liem, M., Peris, T. S., Hitchcock, C., Will, G-J., & van Harmelen, A-L. (2025). Friendship buffering and autobiographical memory specificity in young people with childhood adversity. PsyArXiv
Preprint • Open Access Resources

Resilient Minds

I founded an international platform for early-career researchers studying stress resilience and developmental psychopathology to provide networking opportunities and a forum to showcase current research. Up until 2023, I co-organized and led 38 meetings featuring interdisciplinary researchers from the United Kingdom, the United States, the Netherlands, Australia, Germany, Switzerland, and Norway. Resilient Minds meetings take place online and everyone is welcome to join the group.

Want to join the group? Sing up here.
Recaps: Fall 2022 • Spring 2022 • Fall 2021 • Spring 2021