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Group leader

Prof. Dr. rer. nat. Esther Florin
Institute of Clinical Neuroscience and Medical Psychology
Heinrich-Heine-University
Moorenstrasse 5
40225 Duesseldorf


Research Interest

Many neurological diseases lead to pathological changes in brain signals that are already visible during rest. This makes analyzing spontaneous activity a promising avenue to better understand the brain’s function and dysfunction. Our research aims at providing a characterization of the neurophysiological basis of the brain’s resting state networks (RSNs) by determining how communication between and within RSNs is mediated. This goal is achieved by analyzing electro-/magnetoencephalographic (E/MEG) data from healthy participants and Parkinson patients.

Results obtained are translationally used to improve our understanding of the pathophysiology of neurological diseases such as Parkinson’s disease.  A particular focus is on tracing out the electrophysiological mechanisms underlying the effectiveness of dopaminergic treatment and deep brain stimulation for Parkinson patients.

Selected Publications
  1. E. Florin, J. Pfeifer, V. Visser-Vandewalle, A. Schnitzler, L. Timmermann (2016): Parkinson subtype-specific Granger-causal coupling and coherence frequency in the subthalamic area, Neurosciene, 332: 170-180. PubMed
  2. E. Florin, S. Baillet (2015): The brain's resting-state activity is shaped by synchronized cross-frequency coupling of oscillatory neural activity, NeuroImage, 111:26-35. PubMed
  3. E. Florin, M. Watanabe, N.K. Logothetis (2015): The role of sub-second neural events in spontaneous brain activity, Current Opinion in Neurobiology, 32: 24-30. PubMed
  4. E. Florin, E. Bock, S. Baillet (2014): Targeted Reinforcement of Neural Oscillatory Activity with Real-time Neuroimaging Feedback, NeuroImage, 88:54-60. PubMed
  5. D.M. Herz, E. Florin, M.S. Christensen, C. Reck, M.T. Barbe, M.K. Tscheuschler, M. Tittgemeyer, H.R. Siebner, L. Timmermann (2014): Dopamine replacement modulates oscillatory coupling between premotor and motor cortical areas in Parkinson's disease, Cerebral Cortex, 24: 2873-83. PubMed
  6. E. Florin, D. Müller, J. Pfeifer, M.T. Barbe, G.R. Fink, L. Timmermann (2013): Subthalamic stimulation modulates self-estimation of Parkinson patients and induces risk-seeking behavior, Brain, 136(11): 3271-3281. PubMed
  7. E. Florin, R. Erasmi, C. Reck, M. Maarouf, A. Schnitzler, G.R. Fink, L. Timmermann (2013): Does increased gamma activity in patients suffering from Parkinson’s disease counteract the movement inhibiting beta activity?, Neuroscience, 237: 42-50. PubMed
  8. E. Florin, J. Gross, J. Pfeifer, G.R. Fink, L. Timmermann (2011): Reliability of multivariate causality measures for neural data. Journal of Neuroscience Methods, 198(2):344-58. PubMed
  9. E. Florin, J. Gross, J. Pfeifer, G.R. Fink, L. Timmermann (2010): The effect of filtering on Granger causality derived multivariate causality measures. NeuroImage, 50(2): 577-588. PubMed
  10. E. Florin, J. Gross, C. Reck, M. Maarouf, A. Schnitzler, V. Sturm, G.R. Fink, L. Timmermann (2010): Causality between local field potentials of the subthalamic nucleus and electromyograms of forearm muscles in Parkinson's disease. European Journal of Neuroscience, 31: 491-498. PubMed
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