Vardan Arutiunian
- Junior Research Fellow:Center for Language and Brain
- Visiting Lecturer:Faculty of Humanities / School of Philological Studies
- Vardan Arutiunian has been at HSE University since 2018.
Responsibilities
I supervise all projects in the Center, which are concentrated on language abilities of children with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD). In these projects we use the variety of methods, such as behavioral assessment for language profiling of children with ASD (1), magnetoencephalography (2, 3) and electroencephalography (2, 4 ,5) for investigating the neural dynamics during different tasks, brain morphometry (6) and diffusion-tensor imaging (7) for revealing the structural specificity of autistic brain.
The combination of neuroimaging and behavioral methods allows us to investigate how certain neurophysiological / neuroanatomical characteristics of autistic brain are related to the extent of language impairment, which can help to develop the objective tools to diagnose language impairment in children with ASD.
Education
- 2021
Doctoral programme
Immanuel Kant Baltic Federal University - 2012
Degree in Philology
Immanuel Kant Baltic Federal University
Continuing education / Professional retraining / Internships / Study abroad experience
Courses:
- Fundamental Neuroscience for Neuroimaging – John Hopkins University (Coursera)
- Autism Spectrum Disorder – University of California, Davis (Coursera)
Internships:
- 28 June - 6 July, 2019: MEG and Neurophysiology Lab, San Camillo Hospital (Venice, Italy)

Young Faculty Support Program (Group of Young Academic Professionals)
Category "New Researchers" (2019-2020)
Courses (2021/2022)
- Practicum in Psycholinguistics (Bachelor’s programme; Faculty of Humanities; 4 year, 1, 2 module)Rus
- Psycho- and neurolinguistics (Bachelor’s programme; Faculty of Humanities; 3 year, 1-4 module)Rus
- Student-Specific Work Practices (Master’s programme; Faculty of Humanities; 1 year, 2, 3 module)Rus
- Past Courses
20221
20211
20201
Grants
2022-2023 – Russian Science Foundation, № 22-28-01261 "The development of auditory gamma oscillations in children, their relation to age, language abilities, and non-verbal intelligence: A magnetoencephalography (MEG) study"; principal investigator.
2020-2021 – Russian Foundation for Basic Research, № 19-313-51014 "Reading acquisition in Russian-speaking school students: an eye-tracking study of linguistic processing contribution to mastering reading skills"; participant.
2018-2020 – Russian Foundation for Basic Research, № 17-29-09122 "Language deficit and its brain correlates in children with developmental dyslexia"; participant.
2018-2019 – Russian Foundation for Basic Research, № 18-312-00091 "Single-word, sentence and discourse comprehension in patients with temporal lobe epilepsy (including effect of non-verbal IQ and verbal working memory span)"; participant.
2016-2017 – Russian Foundation for Basic Research, № 16-36-00029 "Neurocognitive mechanisms for reading: An orthographical processing in the light of information theory by Claude Shannon (Evidence from eye movements)"; principal investigator.
HSE Researchers Compare Expressive and Receptive Language Abilities of Russian-speaking Children with ASD for the First Time
Researchers from the HSE Centre for Language and Brain and their Russian and American colleagues have become the first to compare expressive and receptive language abilities of Russian children with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) at different linguistic levels. Their work helped them refute the hypothesis that children with ASD understand spoken language less well than they produce it. The study was published in Research in Developmental Disabilities.
The new paper of the Center for Language and Brain in Research in Developmental Disabilities
Vardan Arutiunian and colleagues have published a paper in Research in Developmental Disabilities "Expressive and Receptive Language in Russian Primary-School-Aged Children with Autism Spectrum Disorder".
New paper of the members of the HSE Center for Language and Brain has been published in Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders
The Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders has published a new article by Vardan Harutyunyan on the speech skills of children with autism spectrum disorders.
HSE University Researchers Track Language Abilities of Russian Children with ASD
Researchers from the HSE Center for Language and Brain have, for the first time, described the language abilities of Russian children with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) at all linguistic levels (e.g., phonology, lexicon, morphosyntax, and discourse), using a language test that takes into account the psycholinguistic variables most relevant for Russians. The study was published in Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders.
Members of the HSE Center for Language and Brain made the reports at the IX International Conference on Cognitive Sciences
In 2020, the International Conference on Cognitive Sciences was held for the first time within the framework of the 1st National Congress on Cognitive Research, Artificial Intelligence and Neuroinformatics. The members of the HSE Center for Language and Brain presented reports at this conference.
Vardan Arutiunian at the International Society for Autism Research Annual Meeting Virtual
Member of the HSE Center for Language and Brain Vardan Arutiunian participated at the annual congress which was organised by the International Society for Autism Research.
Vardan Arutiunian on the internship in Italy
Member of the Center for Language and Brain Vardan Arutiunian did an internship at the San Camillo Hospital (Venice, Italy).
Vardan Arutiunian at the International Society for Autism Research Annual Meeting in Canada
Member of the Center for Language and Brain Vardan Arutiunian participated at the annual congress which was organised by the International Society for Autism Research.
Center for Language and Brain members are back from the Amazon jungle
Mariya Khudyakova, Vardan Arutiunian and Andres Felipe Reyes Gomez from El Bsque University in Bogota have completed the expedition to Vaupes province in Colombia where speakers of Tuyuca language live.
Olga Dragoy and Vardan Arutiunian at the 28th ANT Neuromeeting 2019 in France
Members of the Center for Language and Brain Olga Dragoy and Vardan Arutiunian participated at the 28th ANT Neuromeeting 2019 which was organised by ANT Neuro company.
Vardan Arutiunian had a talk about the influence of phonological neighborhood density on word production and recognition in Russian children on the Russian TV Culture channel
Vardan Arutiunian, Research Assistant at the Center for Language and Brain HSE, had a talk on the Russian TV Culture channel about phonological neighborhood density.
Vardan Arutiunian at the ABC: Asia-Pacific Babylab Constellation Conference in Singapore
The member of the Center for Language and Brain Vardan Arutiunian at the ABC: Asia-Pacific Babylab Constellation Conference (2018) in Singapore
Russian Center for Language and Brain at the University of Potsdam
A team of specialists from the Center for Language and Brain (HSE) took part in the International summer school for Infant Studies On Language Development in Europe, which was held from 11 to 15 June at the University of Potsdam (Germany).
Vardan Arutiunian and Andrew Zyryanov at the Conference of Young Scientists “Psy-HSE: Contemporary Issues of Psychological Science”
The members of the Center for Language and Brain Vardan Arutiunian and Andrew Zyryanov gave the talks at the Conference of Young Scientists “Psy-HSE: Contemporary Issues of Psychological Science”.
Vardan Arutiunian at the 6th International Conference on Autism (2018) in Moscow
The member of the Center for Language and Brain Vardan Arutiunian at the 6th International Conference on Autism (2018) in Moscow