Ketamine Found to Increase Brain Noise
An international team of researchers including Sofya Kulikova, Senior Research Fellow at the HSE University-Perm, found that ketamine, being an NMDA receptor inhibitor, increases the brain's background noise, causing higher entropy of incoming sensory signals and disrupting their transmission between the thalamus and the cortex. This finding may contribute to a better understanding of the causes of psychosis in schizophrenia. An article with the study’s findings has been published in the European Journal of Neuroscience.
Fluoride Additive to Boost Production of Sedatives
Russian researchers from HSE University and the Russian Academy of Sciences Nesmeyanov Institute of Organoelement Compounds have come up with a new method of enhancing the chemical reaction involved in producing gamma-aminobutyric acid (GABA) analogues used in sedative drugs. Adding fluoride to the catalyst more than doubled the yield of the pure product and increased the total reaction yield by 2.5 times. This approach is expected to make the production of certain drug components more efficient and less costly. The study has been published in the Journal of Organic Chemistry.
'We Wanted to Create an Opportunity for Intercampus Teams to Engage in Promising Studies'
HSE University has announced the winners of the Project Competition in Basic Science Research for Intercampus Departments. The competition, which the university is organising for the first time, will provide funding to 10 research teams working on five topics. Four of the winning projects will be implemented by new research departments formed as a result of the competition.
Speech Register Switching Causes Brain to Struggle with Comprehension
According to researchers at the HSE Centre for Language and Brain, processing a word which is markedly different in style from the rest of the sentence uses the same brain mechanisms as making sense of a semantically incongruent word. These mechanisms reflect the brain’s efforts to process an unexpected term. The study findings have been published in the Journal of Neurolinguistics. The research was financed by a grant from the Russian Government as part of the 'Science and Universities' National Project.
Hybrid Formats and Psychological Education: Russian Education Trends 2023
The results of a study into the impact of global trends on Russian education show that future education will rely on hybrid formats, micro-credentials and dual learning. The study was conducted by the Laboratory for Educational Innovation Research of the HSE Institute of Education in cooperation with the Rosatom State Atomic Energy Corporation. This is the second study on this topic.
Students of Critical Media Studies Carry out Research on Monsters and Horror
Traditionally, humans have imagined monsters as the exact opposite of themselves: huge, violent, or invisible and soulless beasts. This is apparent in many examples in cinema. However, the image of monsters on the screen transforms with time. A group of Critical Media Studies master’s students organised an event covering the topic of how this transformation takes place at the ‘Playing with Fear: New Image of Monsters in Horror Films’ round table on December 10th.
Job-Education Mismatch Reduces Earnings of Russians by up to 14%
About a third of Russians with higher education do not work in the field that they studied, with this indicator being highest in agriculture and service. Researchers from the HSE Laboratory for Labour Market Studies, together with their colleagues from Portugal, have found out that this job-education mismatch results in a salary reduction of between 7 and 14%. The study was published in the Journal of Education and Work.
‘The Most Important Issue Today is to Successfully Navigate Stormy Waters’
Nandan Unnikrishnan, Distinguished Fellow and Supervisor of theEurasia Programme at the Observer Research Foundation (ORF), will talk at HSE University about the challenges and prospects of Russia-Indiarelations on December 8. The seminar will take place as part of the ‘India and Global Policy Challenges’ project.Olga Kharina, Research Fellow at the HSE Faculty of World Economy and International Affairs, and Nandan Unnikrishnan talked to the HSE News Service about the project.
HSE Researchers Learn to Determine the Level of Happiness of Russians by Posts in Social Networks
Researchers at the HSE Graduate School of Business have created a model for calculating the indicator of subjective well-being, based on the analysis of 7.2 million posts on the Odnoklassniki social network. They found that the lowest level of observed subjective well-being can be registered in the morning, and the highest can be found in the late evening. The results of the study were published in the Mathematics journal.
HSE Researchers Contribute to Artificial Intelligence Journey Conference
The AI Journey international conference is a major platform for sharing cutting-edge innovations in artificial intelligence and machine learning. In late November 2022, AIJ was once again hosted by Sber. The conference was attended by HSE researchers from the Faculty of Computer Science and the Centre for Artificial Intelligence.
Deadline for abstract submission - November 15