Wearable Device Data and Saliva Biomarkers Help Assess Stress Resilience
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.
Stress is the body’s natural response to pressure or challenge. However, prolonged exposure can increase the risk of cardiovascular disease, anxiety and depressive disorders, and can reduce cognitive performance and overall quality of life. Because conventional assessments rely heavily on questionnaires and psychological tests, the researchers set out to identify physiological markers that could complement subjective measures.
Researchers from HSE University, the Institute of Higher Nervous Activity and Neurophysiology of the Russian Academy of Sciences, the Federal Research and Clinical Centre of Intensive Care Medicine and Rehabilitology, and Lomonosov Moscow State University conducted a study to identify objective biomarkers of stress coping ability—ie the body’s ability to adapt effectively to stress.
Seventy-three volunteers participated in the study. Before the experiment, the researchers assessed their stress coping ability using clinical interviews, questionnaires, and physiological measures, and divided the participants into three groups: 'adaptive,' 'intermediate,' and 'maladaptive.'
Participants then completed progressively more difficult memory and attention tasks. At one stage, they were given deceptive feedback and told they had made a mistake even when their answer was correct, creating a controlled stress condition designed to challenge confidence and self-esteem.
The researchers collected saliva samples before and after completing the tasks and measured antioxidant capacity (AOC) together with the concentrations of trace elements such as copper, iron, zinc, and calcium. Under stress, the level of free radicals—reactive oxygen species that can damage cells—increases, contributing to premature aging and the development of chronic diseases. This condition is known as oxidative stress. Antioxidants help regulate free radical levels; the higher their concentration, the better the body’s ability to withstand oxidative stress.
The researchers also recorded a stress index based on data from wearable devices for comparison with the biochemical measures.
Laboratory analysis showed that higher heart rate variability (corresponding to a lower stress index) is associated with better stress coping ability. Zinc concentrations in saliva were higher in participants who adapted more easily to stress, while their potassium levels were lower.
Although all participants demonstrated similar accuracy in task performance, those in the adaptive group had a lower stress index and higher antioxidant capacity in their saliva. In the maladaptive group, self-esteem declined significantly as task difficulty increased, regardless of whether their answers were correct.
According to the researchers, the study shows that data from wearable devices and saliva biomarkers can be viewed as an integrated system of indicators reflecting individual differences in stress resilience. This approach could form the basis for more objective methods of assessing stress coping ability in the future.
Evgeniia Alshanskaia
‘Severe stress can trigger a wide range of health problems, but people do not respond to it in the same way,’ says study author Evgeniia Alshanskaia, Research Fellow at the Institute for Cognitive Neuroscience of HSE University. ‘That is why it is important to predict and monitor these differences. Linking physiology, biochemistry, and mental state is an important step toward personalized preventive diagnostics.’
See also:
Russian Scientists Propose Method to Speed Up Microwave Filter Design
Researchers at HSE MIEM, in collaboration with colleagues from the Moscow Technical University of Communications and Informatics (MTUCI), have implemented a novel approach to designing microwave filters—generative synthesis using machine learning tools. The proposed method reduces the filter development cycle from several days to just a few minutes and in the future could be applied to the design of other microwave electronic devices. The results were presented at the IEEE International Conference '2026 Systems of Signals Generating and Processing in the Field of on Board Communications.'
Scientists Find That Only Technological Innovations Consistently Advance Environmental Sustainability
Renewable energy and labour productivity do not always contribute to environmental sustainability. Technological innovation is the only factor that consistently has a positive effect. This is the conclusion reached by an international team of researchers, including Natalia Veselitskaya, Leading Research Fellow at the HSE ISSEK Foresight Centre. The study has been published in Sustainable Development.
HSE Researchers Train Neural Network to Predict Protein–Protein Interactions More Accurately
Scientists at the AI and Digital Science Institute of the HSE Faculty of Computer Science have developed a model capable of predicting protein–protein interactions with 95% accuracy. GSMFormer-PPI integrates three types of protein data (including information about protein surface properties) to analyse relationships between proteins, rather than simply combining datasets as in previous models. The solution could accelerate the discovery of disease molecular mechanisms, biomarkers, and potential therapeutic targets. The paper has been published in Scientific Reports.
HSE Scientists Uncover Mechanism Behind Placental Lipid Metabolism Disorders in Preeclampsia
Scientists at HSE University have discovered that in preeclampsia—one of the most severe complications of pregnancy—the placenta remodels its lipid metabolism, reducing its own cholesterol synthesis while increasing cholesterol transfer to the foetus. This compensatory mechanism helps sustain foetal nutrition but accelerates placental deterioration and may lead to preterm birth. The study findings have been published in Frontiers in Molecular Biosciences.
HSE Experts Reveal Low Accuracy of Technology Forecasts in Transportation
HSE researchers evaluated the accuracy of technology forecasts in the transportation sector over the past 50 years and found that the average accuracy rate does not exceed 25%, with the lowest accuracy observed in aviation and rail transport. According to the scientists, this is due to limitations of the forecasting method and the inherent complexities of the sector. The study findings have been published in Technological Forecasting and Social Change.
When Circumstances Are Stronger Than Habits: How Financial Stress Affects Smoking Cessation
HSE researchers have found that the likelihood of quitting smoking rises with increasing financial struggles. While low levels of financial difficulties do not affect smoking behaviour, moderate financial stress can increase the probability of quitting by 13% to 21%. Responses to high financial stress differ by gender: men are almost 1.5 times more likely to give up cigarettes than under normal conditions, whereas no significant effect is observed on women’s decisions to quit smoking. These conclusions are based on data from the Russia Longitudinal Monitoring Survey (RLMS-HSE) for 2000–2023 and have been published in Monitoring of Public Opinion: Economic and Social Changes.
HSE Researchers Propose New Method of Verbal Fluency Analysis for Early Detection of Cognitive Impairment
Researchers from the HSE Center for Language and Brain and the Mental Health Research Centre have proposed a new method of linguistic analysis that enables the distinction between normal and pathological ageing. Using this approach, they showed that patterns in patients’ word choices during verbal fluency tests allow clinicians to more accurately differentiate clinically significant impairments from subjective memory complaints. Incorporating this type of analysis into clinical practice could improve the accuracy of early dementia diagnosis. The results have been published in Applied Neuropsychology: Adult.
How the Brain Processes a Word: HSE Researchers Compare Reading Routes in Adults and Children
Researchers from the HSE Center for Language and Brain used magnetoencephalography to study how the brains of adults and children respond to words during reading. They showed that in children the brain takes longer to process words that are frequently used in everyday speech, while rare words and pseudowords are processed in the same way—slowly and in parts. With age, the system is reorganised: high-frequency words shift to a fast route, whereas new letter combinations are still analysed slowly. The study was published in the journal Psychophysiology.
How Neural Networks Detect and Interpret Wordplay: New Insights from HSE Researchers
An international team including researchers from the HSE Faculty of Computer Science has presented KoWit-24, an annotated dataset of 2,700 Russian-language Kommersant news headlines containing wordplay. The dataset enables an assessment of how artificial intelligence detects and interprets wordplay. Experiments with five large language models show that even advanced systems still make mistakes, and that interpreting wordplay is more challenging for them than detecting it. The results were presented at the RANLP conference; the paper is available on Arxiv.org, and the dataset and the code for reproducing the experiments are available on GitHub.
HSE Economists Find That Auction Prices Depend on Artist’s Life Story
Researchers from the Centre for Big Data in Economics and Finance at the HSE Faculty of Economic Sciences have found that facts from an artist’s life are statistically significant in pricing a painting, alongside such traditional characteristics as the material, the size of the canvas, or the presence of the artist’s signature. This conclusion is based on an analysis of prices for 15,000 works by 158 artists sold since 1999 by the major auction houses Sotheby’s and Christie’s. The article has been published in the journal Empirical Studies of the Arts.