News

Imagining oneself from an external perspective is easier than mentally “performing” the movement, yet the body responds in the same way — HSE scientists have found. This discovery changes the approach to rehabilitation after injuries and strokes.

The project “Investigation of Persuasion Processes and Conformal Behavior in Social Groups of Different Age Categories” will be carried out under the supervision of Proferssor V.A. Klyucharev. The project focuses on the neurocognitive mechanisms of conformal behavior and social influence.

A team of young scientists from the HSE University’s Institute for Cognitive Neuroscience has created “Scientists’ Multiverse” — a series of comics, videos, and quizzes highlighting the achievements of Russian neurobiologists and psychophysiologists. Developed in 2025 with support from the Ministry of Science and Higher Education, the project aims to make complex science more accessible and engaging for young people. Its final product is an interactive laboratory map designed to help students and early-career researchers navigate opportunities in the field.

A team of scientists, including researchers from HSE University, has proposed a method for assessing stress resilience using physiological markers derived from wearable devices and saliva samples. The participants who adapted better to stress showed higher heart rate variability, higher zinc concentrations in saliva, and lower potassium levels.  The findings were published in the Journal of Molecular Neuroscience.

Scientists at HSE University have investigated the effect of parks on the cognitive and emotional resources of city dwellers. The researchers compared brain electrical activity in 30 participants while they watched videos of walks through parks and along busy highways. The results showed that green urban environments with trees produce a consistent effect across individuals, helping the brain calm down and relax. By contrast, walks along busy streets were found to be distracting. The findings have been published in Scientific Reports.

Junior Research Fellow Eliana Monakhova from the Institute for Cognitive Neuroscience took part in the session “The Art of Defeating Threats” at the Ural Forum on Cybersecurity in Finance. The fourth edition of the forum was held at the Yekaterinburg-Expo Congress Center and brought together more than 1,600 participants, including bank executives, federal government officials, and information security experts.

Eating habits can be shaped not only by the authority of medical experts but also through ordinary conversations among friends. Researchers at HSE University have shown that advice from peers to reduce sugar consumption is just as effective as advice from experts. The study's findings have been published in Frontiers in Nutrition.

Researchers at the HSE Institute for Cognitive Neuroscience have studied how the brain responds to audio deepfakes—realistic fake speech recordings created using AI. The study shows that people tend to trust the current opinion of an authoritative speaker even when new statements contradict the speaker’s previous position. This effect also occurs when the statement conflicts with the listener’s internal attitudes. The research has been published in the journal NeuroImage.