Tag «publications»

Neuroscientists from HSE University have criticized the famous studies that question the free will of our decisions. You can’t shift responsibility for your actions to the brain. The results of the new work were published in the Neuropsychologia journal.

Sergey Stepanov is an Associate Professor at ICEF and the School of Finance. He is also the Academic Supervisor of the HSE/NES Programme in Economics, a joint programme that teaches students fundamental knowledge of economics, modern methods of economic analysis, and mathematical methods for solving economic tasks. Sergey spoke to Olga Krylova about the joint programme, his research work with colleagues and students, and his second big passion—running.

HSE researchers have examined the brain's reaction to violations of social norms and calculated a behavioural index to assess an individual's sensitivity to unfairness. This index can potentially be used to develop individualised rehabilitation programmes for patients with various types of behavioural disorders. The study has been published in Neuroscience Letters.

An international team, including researchers of the HSE Faculty of Computer Science, has discovered a new mechanism of gene regulation in which microRNA assumes a central role. These non-coding molecules influence the DNA regions within genes that govern embryonic development. The study contributes to our understanding of the mechanisms underlying the diverse genetic programs found in complex multicellular organisms. The paper has been published in the International Journal of Molecular Sciences.

A positive correlation has been discovered between the neural activity in the nucleus accumbens of study participants as they were presented with photographs of dishes from the menu of the Chaihona No. 1 restaurant chain and the sales performance of said dishes in the chain's establishments. This finding was made by a team of researchers of the HSE Institute for Cognitive Neuroscience, Lomonosov Moscow State University, and ETH Zurich (Switzerland). The study findings have been published in PLoS One.

Researchers from the MIEM HSE Centre for Quantum Metamaterials, jointly with colleagues from Germany and the UK, have proposed an algorithm for the automated compression of arbitrary environments (ACE). It opens up exciting new possibilities for the precise calculation of the dynamics of quantum systems. According to the scientists, the new method can assist in the design of quantum computers and novel communication systems. The study findings are published in Nature Physics.

An international team of scientists including a HSE researcher have detected a rare optical emission from one of the most powerful gamma-ray bursts in the history of observation. The team measured the parameters of the environment, from which the emission originated, and proceeded to construct a model that simulates the behaviour of gamma-ray bursts. This contributes to our understanding of why such bursts are accompanied by electromagnetic radiation in the visible range. The findings have been published in Nature Astronomy.

Austrian psychiatrist Viktor Frankl believed that the quest for meaning constitutes a fundamental and intrinsic motivation for all human beings. Some other authors suggest that the need for meaning or purpose only emerges at higher levels of personality development. According to a team of psychologists from HSE and the University of Paris Nanterre, individuals who have achieved higher levels of ego development are inclined to relinquish hedonistic motives in favour of cultivating mindfulness and embarking on a quest for meaning. These findings have been published in Frontiers in Psychology.