Prof. Dr. Erik Malte Müller

Spokesperson Research Training Group 2271 "Breaking Expectations"
Secretary: Elaine Gurich-Hahn, Room 02054
Office Hour: Tues, 11:30-12:30h

 Research Interests

• Changing expectations and expectations violations
• Mechanisms of neuroticism/anxiety and extraversion
• Links between personality traits and psychological disorders
• Brain-heart coupling
• Action monitoring
• Fear conditioning and extinction
• Lucid Dreaming

 Education

2015    Habilitation (venia legendi for Psychology), Justus-Liebig Universität Gießen (Gießen, Germany), Department of Psychology
2011    Dr. rer. nat (summa cum laude), Philipps-Universität Marburg (Marburg, Germany), Department of Psychology
2008    Diplom, Philipps-Universität Marburg and Pennsylvania State University (visiting graduate student; GPA: 4.0)
2005    Vordiplom, Philipps-Universität Marburg, Department of Psychology

 Publications

Fischer, A., Chuang, L., Augustat, N., Blanckenburg, P., & Mueller, E. M. (2026). Trait Neuroticism and the Nocebo Effect: The Mediating Role of Side-Effect Expectations. Journal of Personality 1–11.

Panitz, C., & Mueller, E. M. (2026). Imagery-based fear conditioning enhances the late positive potential. Cognitive, Affective, & Behavioral Neuroscience, 1-20.

Unterschemmann, S. L., Panitz, C., Bierwirth, P. Petereit, P., Comtesse, H., Sperl, M. F., & Mueller, E. M. (2025). Brain-Heart Coupling in Response to Imminent Threat in Panic Disorder, Social Anxiety Disorder, and Healthy Controls. Journal of Anxiety Disorders, 103069.

Unterschemmann, S. L., Mueller, E. M., Lux, S., Philipsen, A., & Schulze, M. (2025). First evaluation of the emotional picture set of self-injury images (EPSI) using psychophysiological and self-report measures. Borderline Personality Disorder and Emotion Dysregulation, 12(1), 27.

Chuang, L.-C., Augustat, N., Bierwirth, P., Lees, T., Pizzagalli, D. A., Endres, D., & Mueller, E. M. (2025). Individual differences in dopamine-related traits influence mood effects of dopamine D2-antagonist and antidepressant treatment expectations. International Journal of Neuropsychopharmacology, 28, pyaf067.

Gerpheide, K., Bierwirth, P., Unterschemmann, S. L., Panitz, C., Gross, J. J., & Mueller, E. M. (2025). Event-related potentials, heart period, and brain-heart responses during a threat of shock oddball task: Replicability and 6-month-reliability. Biological Psychology, 198, 109040.

Fischer, A., & Mueller, E. M. (2025). Bad news first—Neuroticism, negative expectations, and preference for negative information. European Journal of Personality, 08902070251316614

Paul, K., Beauducel, A., Hennig, J., Hewig, J., Hildebrandt, A., Kührt, C., Lange, L., Mueller, E.M., ..., Wacker, J., (2025). Frontal Alpha Asymmetry as a Marker of Approach Motivation? Insights from a cooperative forking path analysis. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology.

Augustat, N., Endres, D., & Mueller, E.M. (2024). Uncertainty of treatment efficacy enhances placebo effects on reinforcement learning. Scientific reports, 14, 14421.

Beauducel, A., Scheuble-Cabrera, V., Hennig, J., Hewig, J., Hildebrandt, A., Kührt, C., …Mueller, E.M., ... & Wacker, J. (2024). The association of dispositional anxiety with the NoGo N2 under relaxation instruction vs. speed/accuracy instruction. Biological Psychology, 192, 108850.

Gerpheide, K., Unterschemmann, S. L., Panitz, C., Bierwirth, P., Gross, J. J., & Mueller, E. M. (2024). Unpredictable threat increases early event‐related potential amplitudes and cardiac acceleration: A brain–heart coupling study. Psychophysiology, e14563.

Wacker, J., DeYoung C., & Mueller, E.M. (2024). Personality Neuroscience. In P. Corr (Ed.), Psychology of Individual Differences: Intelligence and Personality in Action. New York: Oxford University Press. 

Basedow, L. A., Fischer, A., Benson, S., Bingel, U., Brassen, S., Büchel, C., Engler, H., Mueller, E.M., Schedlowski, M. & Rief, W. (2023). The influence of psychological traits and prior experience on treatment expectations. Comprehensive Psychiatry, 127, 152431.

Chuang, L. C., Panitz, C., & Mueller, E. M. (2023). Interindividual Differences in Anhedonia Moderate Antidepressant Placebo Responses on Heart Rate in Healthy Individuals. Journal of Affective Disorders Reports, 100705.

Stolz, C., Pickering, A. D., & Mueller, E. M. (2023). Dissociable feedback valence effects on frontal midline theta during reward gain versus threat avoidance learning. Psychophysiology, 60(5), e14235.

Tzioridou, S., Dresler, M., Sandberg, K., & Mueller, E. M. (2022). The role of mindful acceptance and lucid dreaming in nightmare frequency and distress. Scientific Reports, 12(1), 15737.

Sperl, M. F., Panitz, C., Skoluda, N., Nater, U. M., Pizzagalli, D. A., Hermann, C., & Mueller, E. M. (2022). Alpha-2 adrenoreceptor antagonist yohimbine potentiates consolidation of conditioned fear. International Journal of Neuropsychopharmacology, 25(9), 759-773.

Augustat, N., Chuang, L. C., Panitz, C., Stolz, C., Mueller, E. M., & Endres, D. M. (2022). Modeling Reward Learning Under Placebo Expectancies: A Q-Learning Approach. In Proceedings of the Annual Meeting of the Cognitive Science Society (Vol. 44, No. 44).

Hagemann, D., Spinath, F. M., & Mueller, E. M. (2022). Differentielle Psychologie und Persönlichkeitsforschung. Kohlhammer Verlag.

Paul, K., Short, C. A., Beauducel, A., Per Carsten H., Härpfer, K., Hennig, J., Hewig, J., Hilde-brandt, A., Kührt, C. Mueller, E.M., Osinsky, R. Porth, E., Riesel, A., Rodrigues, J., Scheffel, C., Stahl, J., Strobel, A., Wacker, J. (2022) The Methodology and Dataset of the CoScience EEG-Personality Project - A Large-Scale, Multi-Laboratory Project Grounded in Cooperative Forking Paths Analysis. Personality Science

Brandt, A., & Mueller, E. M. (2022). Negative affect related traits and the chasm between self-report and neuroscience. Current Opinion in Behavioral Sciences, 43, 216-223.

Panitz, C., Endres, D. M., Buchholz, M., Khosrowtaj, Z., Sperl, M. F., Mueller, E. M., ... & Pinquart, M. (2021). A revised framework for the investigation of expectation update versus maintenance in the context of expectation violations: the ViolEx 2.0 model. Frontiers in psychology, 5237.

Exner, A., Tapia León, I., Mueller, E.M., & Klucken, T., (2021). Cardiac responses in aver-sive and appetitive olfactory conditioning: evidence for a valence-independent CS-elicited bradycardia. Psychophysiology, 58, e13912.

Sperl, M. F., Wroblewski, A., Mueller, M., Straube, B., & Mueller, E. M. (2021) Learning dynamics of electrophysiological brain signals during human fear conditioning. NeuroImage, 226, 117569

Schredl, M., Schramm, F., Valli, K., Mueller, E. M., & Sandman, N. (2021). Nightmare Dis-tress Questionnaire: Associated Factors. Journal of Clinical Sleep Medicine, 17, 61-67.

Panitz, C., Keil, A., & Mueller, E. M. (2019). Extinction-resistant attention to long-term conditioned threat is indexed by selective visuocortical alpha suppression in humans. Scientific reports, 9(1), 1-9.

Mueller, E. M., Sperl, M. J. F., & Panitz, C. (2019). Aversive imagery causes de novo fear conditioning, Psychological Science. doi.org/10.1177/0956797619842261

Petereit, P., Rinn, C., Stemmler, G., & Mueller, E.M. (2019). Oxytocin reduces the link between neural and affective responses after social exclusion, Biological Psychology, 145, 224-235.

Stolz, C., Endres, D., & Mueller, E.M. (2019). Threat-conditioned contexts modulate the late positive potential to faces – a mobile EEG/virtual reality study. Psychophysiology, 56, e13308 doi.org/10.1111/psyp.13308

Sperl, M. F. J., Panitz, C., Rosso, I. M., Dillon, D. G., Kumar, P., Hermann, A., Whitton, A. E., Hermann, C., Pizzagalli, D. A., & Mueller, E. M. (2018). Fear extinction recall modulates human fronto-medial theta and amygdala activity. Cerebral Cortex, 29, 701-715.

Lueckel, M., Panitz, C., Nater, U. M., & Mueller, E. M. (2018). Reliability and robustness of feedback-evoked brain-heart coupling after placebo, dopamine, and noradrenaline challenge. International Journal of Psychophysiology, 132, 298-310.

Sperl, M. F., Panitz, C., Hermann, C., & Mueller, E. M. (2016). A pragmatic comparison of noise burst and electric shock unconditioned stimuli for fear conditioning research with many trials. Psychophysiology, 53(9), 1352-1365.

Klucken, T., Kruse, O., Schweckendiek, J., Kuepper, Y., Mueller, E. M., Hennig, J., & Stark, R. (2016). No evidence for blocking the return of fear by disrupting reconsolidation prior to extinction learning. Cortex, 79, 112-122.

Mueller, E. M., & Pizzagalli, D. A. (2016). One-year-old fear memories rapidly activate human fusiform gyrus. Social cognitive and affective neuroscience, 11(2), 308-316.

Munk, A. J., Wielpuetz, C., Osinsky, R., Mueller, E. M., Grant, P., & Hennig, J. (2016). Specific Reaction Patterns to Distinct Positive Emotional Cues Related to Incentive Motivation in Dependence of the Taq1A-Polymorphism: Molecular Genetic Associations of Early and Late Event-Related Potentials. Neuropsychobiology, 73(1), 23-34.

Panitz, C., Hermann, C., & Mueller, E. M. (2015). Conditioned and extinguished fear modulate functional corticocardiac coupling in humans. Psychophysiology, 52(10), 1351-1360.

Auerbach, R. P., Stewart, J. G., Stanton, C. H., Mueller, E. M., & Pizzagalli, D. A. (2015). Emotion processing biases and resting EEG activity in depressed adolescents. Depression and anxiety, 32(9), 693.

Mueller, E.M., Panitz, C., Pizzagalli, D., Hermann, C., & Wacker, J. (2015). Midline theta dissociates agentic extraversion and anhedonic depression. Personality and Individual Differences, 79, 172-177.

Mueller, E.M., Pechtel, P., Cohen, A.L., Douglas, S.R., & Pizzagalli, D. (2015). Potentiated processing of negative feedback in depression is attenuated by anhedonia. Depression and Anxiety, 32, 296-305.

Mueller, E.M., Burgdorf, C., Chavanon, M.-L., Schweiger, D., Wacker, J., & Stemmler, G. (2014). Dopamine blockade eliminates differences in failure processing between agentic introverts and extraverts in an incentive context. Cognitive Affective and Behavioral Neuroscience, 14, 756-768.

Mueller, E.M., Burgdorf, C., Chavanon, M.-L., Schweiger, D., Hennig, J., Wacker, J., Stemmler, G. (2014). The COMT Val158Met polymorphism regulates the effect of a dopamine antagonist on the feedback-related negativity. Psychophysiology, 51. 805-809.

Mueller, E.M., Panitz, C., Hermann, C., Pizzagalli, D.A., (2014). Prefrontal Oscillations during Recall of Conditioned and Extinguished Fear in Humans. Journal of Neuroscience, 34, 7059-7066

Mueller, E.M., Panitz, C., Nestoriuc, Y., Stemmler, G., & Wacker, J. (2014). Panic disorder and serotonin reuptake inhibitors predict coupling of cortical and cardiac activity. Neuropsychopharmacology, 39, 507-514.

Mueller, E.M., Stemmler, G., Hennig, J. & Wacker, J. (2013). 5-HTTLPR and anxiety modulate brain-heart covariation. Psychophysiology, 50, 441-453.

Panitz, C.P., Wacker, J., Stemmler, G. & Mueller, E.M. (2013). Brain-heart coupling at the P300 latency is linked to anterior cingulate cortex and insula - a cardio-electroencephalographic covariance tracing study. Biological Psychology, 94, 185-191.

Wacker, J., Mueller, E. M., Pizzagalli, D. A. Hennig, J., Stemmler, G. (2013). Dopamine D2 receptor blockade reverses the association between trait BAS and frontal asymmetry in an approach motivational context. Psychological Science, 24, 489-497.

Wacker, J., Mueller, E., Stemmler, G. (2013). Prenatal testosterone and personality: Increasing the specificity of trait assessment to detect consistent associations with digit ratio (2D:4D). Journal of Research in Personality, 47, 171-177.

Mueller, E.M., Evers, E.A., Wacker, J., & van der Veen, F. (2012). Acute tryptophan depletion attenuates brain-heart coupling following external feedback. Frontiers in Human Neuroscience, 6, 77.

Seemüller, A., Mueller, E. M., & Rösler, F. (2012). EEG-power and -coherence changes in a unimodal and a crossmodal working memory task with visual and kinesthetic stimuli. International Journal of Psychophysiology, 83, 87-95.

Wacker, J., Mueller, E. M., Hennig, J., & Stemmler, G. (2012). How to consistently link extraversion and intelligence to the Catechol-O-Methyltransferase (COMT) Gene: On defining and measuring psychological phenotypes in neurogenetic research. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 102, 427-444.

Mueller, E.M., Makeig, S., Stemmler, G., Hennig, J.,& Wacker, J. (2011). Dopamine effects on human error processing depend on COMT VAL158MET genotype. Journal of Neuroscience, 31, 15818-15825.

Mueller, E. M., Hofmann, S.G., & Cherry, J. (2010). The type IV phosphodiesterase inhibitor rolipram disturbs expression and extinction of conditioned fear in mice. Neuropharmacology, 59,  1 – 8.

Mueller, E. M., Nguyen, J., Ray, W., & Borkovec, T. D. (2010). Future oriented decision-making in Generalized Anxiety Disorder is evident across different versions of the Iowa Gambling Task. Journal of Behavior Therapy and Experimental Psychiatry, 41, 165-171.

Mueller, E. M., Stemmler, G., & Wacker, J. (2010). Single-trial EEG predicts cardiac acceleration: A time-lagged P-correlation approach for studying neurovisceral connectivity. Neuroscience, 166, 491-500.

Mueller, E. M., Hofmann, S. G., Santesso, D. L., Meuret, A. E., Bitran, S., & Pizzagalli, D. A. (2009). Electrophysiological evidence of attentional biases in social anxiety disorder. Psychological Medicine, 39, 1141-1152.

Santesso, D. L., Meuret, A. E., Hofmann, S. G., Mueller, E. M., Ratner, K. G., Roesch, E. B., & Pizzagalli, D.A. (2008). Electrophysiological correlates of spatial orienting towards angry faces: A source localization study. Neuropsychologia, 46, 1338-1348.