Research & Expertise news at HSE University

HSE academics joined researchers from the Turner Scientific Research Institute for Children's Orthopaedics to study how the brains of children with arthrogryposis control elbow flexion after muscle transplantation. They found that in such patients, more motor neuron activity occurs, which means that the start of a new movement requires more effort from the brain. The paper ‘Feasibility and Challenges of Performing Magnetoencephalography Experiments in Children with Arthrogryposis Multiplex Congenita’ was published in Frontiers in Pediatrics.

Issued in 2019 by the Institute for Statistical Studies and Economics of Knowledge (ISSEK) at HSE University, the report‘What is the Digital Economy?’ has topped the Russian Science Citation Index list of the 6,000 most-cited publications in the digital field in 2019–2021. Analysis of the database shows that other ISSEK papers on digital topics have also become hits in the research world.

TheHuman Capital Multidisciplinary Research Centre and HSE University, in cooperation with the World Bank, held the conference ‘New Challenges of Demographic, Epidemiological and Medical-Technological Development: Search for New Models of Healthcare Development.’ The participants discussed whether the healthcare system was prepared to face the pandemic, how the latter affected lifespans and excess mortality rates, whether we can trust statistics, and what we should do to see ‘the light at the end of the pandemic tunnel.’     

The mega-grant awarded by the Russian government to the International Laboratory of Dynamical Systems and Applications at HSE University’s Nizhny Novgorod campus has been extended to 2022–2023. The Academic Supervisor of the laboratory is Dmitry Turaev, a leading specialist in the field of dynamical systems and Professor at Imperial College London. Professor Turaev spoke to the HSE News Service about the results achieved by the laboratory so far and its plans for the next two years.

Students can learn difficult material much more efficiently by collaborating than by studying individually. They help each other, share information, and build collective knowledge. However, things are not as simple as they may seem. Cooperation between students is effective for certain activities, but not others. As researchers from the HSE Institute of Education have shown, knowledge is absorbed more effectively through group work, but the same benefits are not found when it comes to the practical application of knowledge. 

November 25, 2021 marked the publishing of a corpus of Soqotri folklore texts. Translated into Classical Arabic, the texts are accompanied by a brief introduction explaining the basic principles of the Soqotri writing system, which is based on the Arabic orthography. The authors of the book are Soqotri native speakers Ahmed Isa al-Daarhi, Isa Gumaan al-Daarhi, and Maysoon Mohammed Aldarhi. It was published by Maria Bulakh and Leonid Kogan under the editorship of Prof. Vitaly Naumkin, Corresponding Member of the Russian Academy of Sciences. The publication was supported by the UAE Embassy in Moscow.

The mega-grant allocated by the Russian government to the International Laboratory of Social Neurobiology, has been extended for 2022-23. The laboratory was founded two years ago and is headed by Iiro Jaaskelainen, a leading neurobiologist from Finland. Laboratory Head Vasily Klucharev spoke to the HSE News Service about the results the lab has already achieved and the prospects for the next two years.

A group of researchers from the HSE Centre for Bioelectric Interfaces has studied the activity of the brain and other body systems during meditation. It was the first study to show that, when following the same instructions, some people relax, while others concentrate. The results of the study were published in the PLOS ONE journal.