Research & Expertise

For the first time, psycholinguists from the HSE Centre for Language and Brain, in collaboration with colleagues from the USA and Germany, recorded eye movements during a test to assess narrative skills in young children and adults. The researchers found that story comprehension depends on plot structure, and that children aged five to six tend to struggle with questions about protagonists' internal states. The study findings have been published in the Journal of Experimental Child Psychology.

Scientists at Privolzhsky Research Medical University (PRMU) and the Centre for Language and Brain Studies at the HSE Campus in Nizhny Novgorod have developed methods to diagnose autoaggressive and heteroaggressive tendencies in adolescents using eye-tracking technology. This will allow psychiatrists and psychologists to address this condition in young people before they may harm themselves or others. Anna Khomenko, Senior Research Fellow of the Centre for Language and Brain Studies at the HSE Campus in Nizhny Novgorod, presented the results of the project at the NeuroThursday seminar.

Dr Gerwin Schalk is a professor at Fudan University in Shanghai and a partner of the HSE Centre for Language and Brain within the framework of the strategic project 'Human Brain Resilience.' Dr Schalk is known as the creator of BCI2000, a non-commercial general-purpose brain-computer interface system. In this interview, he discusses modern neural interfaces, methods for post-stroke rehabilitation, a novel approach to neurosurgery, and shares his vision for the future of neurotechnology.

On November 4-6, as part of Inventing the Future International Symposium hosted by the National Centre RUSSIA, the HSE Centre for Language and Brain facilitated a discussion titled 'Evolution of the Brain: How Does the World Change Us?' Researchers from the country's leading universities, along with health professionals and neuroscience popularisers, discussed specific aspects of human brain function.

A team of scientists, including researchers from the HSE Centre for Language and Brain, examined specific aspects of auditory perception in children with autism. The scientists observed atypical alpha rhythm activity both during sound perception and at rest. This suggests that these children experience abnormalities in the early stages of sound processing in the brain's auditory cortex. Over time, these abnormalities can result in language difficulties. The study findings have been published in Brain Structure and Function.

Research assistant from the Center for Language and Brain, HSE University, participated in the online conference on psycholinguistics held on 5-7 June, in the Max Planck Institute.

10th Summer Neurolinguistics School

Researchers from the HSE Center for Language and Brain have identified previously unknown age-related changes in brain activity during the perception of auditory information in a group of children aged 7–12 years. The researchers used magnetoencephalography (MEG), an ultra-precise method of brain activity recording. The results obtained can be used to explore the impairments in language comprehension in children with autism. The study was published in the Human Brain Mapping.