Vasily Klucharev

Russian scientists have discovered how the brain makes purchasing decisions. Using electroencephalography (EEG) and magnetoencephalography (MEG), researchers found that the brain responds almost instantly when a product's price deviates from expectations. This response engages brain regions involved in evaluating rewards and learning from past decisions. Thus, perceiving a product's value is not merely a conscious choice but also a function of automatic cognitive mechanisms. The results have been published in Frontiers in Human Neuroscience.

A team of researchers at HSE University investigated the neural mechanisms involved in how the brain processes persuasive messages. Using functional MRI, the researchers recorded how the participants' brains reacted to expert arguments about the harmful health effects of sugar consumption. The findings revealed that all unpersuaded individuals' brains responded to the messages in a similar manner, whereas each persuaded individual produced a unique neural response. This suggests that successful persuasive messages influence opinions in a highly individual manner, appearing to find a unique key to each person's brain. The study findings have been published in PNAS.

HSE University hosted a joint research seminar to review the 2024 results of the Strategic Project 'Human Brain Resilience: Neurocognitive Technologies for Adaptation, Learning, Development and Rehabilitation in a Changing Environment.' The event showcased the progress and outcomes of fundamental and applied projects focused on developing technologies for neurodiagnostics, neuroadaptation, and neurorehabilitation—collectively known as 3N technologies. The objective is to develop tools that can help prevent neurogenic and psychiatric disorders or alleviate their consequences.

Vasily Klucharev, HSE professor and Leading Research Fellow at the Institute for Cognitive Neuroscience, successfully defended his doctoral dissertation in cognitive science. This was the first doctoral dissertation in this discipline in Russia.

HSE scientists have discovered an association between individuals’ brain activity and the sales performance of a restaurant chain. A new neuroimaging study revealed a correlation between dopaminergic activity in the nucleus accumbens of participants as they were exposed to photos of dishes and the sales performance of said dishes. According to the researchers, examining the neural activity of a small group of individuals can aid restaurants in crafting more impactful menus and boosting their revenues. The paper has been published in Plos One.

Fedor Shvets came to Russia from Kazakhstan, graduated from the Bachelor’s programme in Sociology and Social Informatics at HSE University in St Petersburg, and is currently studying for his Master’s degree in Population and Development at HSE University in Moscow. In an interview with the HSE News Service, he spoke about his choice of university and programme, and shared his impressions of living and studying in Moscow.

Researchers from HSE University and St. Petersburg State University of Architecture and Civil Engineering (SPSUACE) used eye tracking to study how residents who own cars and those who don’t look at the shared courtyards of multistorey apartment buildings. The study was published in Urban Forestry & Urban Greening.

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.

Lin Yang entered ICEF Master’s Programme in Financial Economics after completing his bachelor in the United States, and believes that Russia provides unrivalled rigorous mathematical training. Lin currently serves as Investment Director of Eurasia Region at China Railway Construction Corporation International Investment Group. He talked about the features of Liberal Arts colleges, how neurosciences help in financial forecasting, and how the ICEF alumni community is useful for work.

The first International Conference on Social Neurology in Environmentally Sound Conditions, organized by the International Laboratory of Social Neurobiology of the Institute of Cognitive Neurosciences and Aalto University will be held online on June 21-23, 2021. The HSE News Service spoke with conference organisers and some of the key speakers in the run-up to the conference about its agenda and some research highlights.

The results of the competition for the best academic and popular science papers in Russian by HSE staff members have been announced. This competition is a new one, organized by the university to celebrate the Year of Science and Technology. 257 applications were submitted, with 35 winners announced in the academic category and 30 in the popular science one. The winners were announced on Alexander Pushkin’s birthday. The organizers plan to make the competition annual, potentially opening it up for all Russian and international researchers writing papers and involved in science communication in Russian.

The Russian Ministry of Education and Science has approved a new nomenclature of specializations in which academic degrees are conferred in Russia. The new list includes 21 new fields, including cognitive science. Maria Falikman, Head of the HSE School of Psychology, discusses the history of cognitive science, its formation at HSE, and its prospects for development.

On March 18, HSE University will host the international Neurotechnology & Freedom Conference, which will be held online. In an exchange with HSE News Service, Vasily Klucharev, director of the Institute for Cognitive Neuroscience and tenured professor at HSE University, discussed what views on the compatibility of these two concepts exist in modern science and art.

Scientists at HSE University have learned that disagreeing with the opinion of other people leaves a ‘trace’ in brain activity, which allows the brain to later adjust its opinion in favour of the majority-held point of view. The article was published in Scientific Reports.

September 4, 2019 was a day of firsts for the School of Psychology and the Centre for Cognition and Decision Making. Zachary Yaple, who was born in the United States and grew up in England, defended his dissertation, 'Neurophysiological Correlates of Risky Decision-Making'. His defense marked the first PhD to be prepared at the Centre for Cognition and Decision Making and the first PhD to be awarded to an international student by the Doctoral School of Psychology.

The Moscow Urban Forum will take place from July 17 to 22 at Zaryadye Park. This year’s topic is ‘Megacity of the Future: New Space for Living’. HSE representatives will participate in the forum’s expert discussions.

The new institute is headed by Vasily Klucharev, a professor at the Higher School of Economics, who previously worked as Head of the School of Psychology. Vasily Klucharev told the HSE news team about what the School managed to achieve in four years, what the new institute will do and how attitudes towards psychology and neuroscience are changing.

A team of specialists from the educational platform Coursera visited the Higher School of Economics for the first time ever this April. The group was made up of Coursera’s Regional Manager Inessa Roman-Pogorzhelskaya, Content Partnerships Manager Nathan Hite, and Teaching & Learning Specialist Alexandra Urban, and during their time at the university they met with HSE Vice Rector Sergey Roshchin, Online Learning Director Evgeny Kulik, and staff from the eLearning Office. The two teams discussed Coursera’s development strategy, as well as HSE’s future cooperation with the online platform.

Anton Zainiev and Daria Varlamova, recent HSE graduates, have written a popular science book This is Crazy! A guidebook of psychological disorders for a big city resident. The authors told us why an urban resident needs to understand how their head works, how journalism can be turned into a non-fiction book, and why bipolar disorder seems fashionable. Anton and Daria also told us how and why they decided to write the book.

On April 29, 2016 at the Academic Council meeting 25 HSE Professors were conferred the status of Tenured Professor.

A project developed by a group of three HSE psychology students received the award for best biotech project at the Entrepreneurial Breakthrough of the Year competition held by the Skolkovo Moscow Business School. A grant to study at Skolkovo was awarded to Andrei Kislov, Egor Levchenko, and Egor Selivanov for their work on neuromarketing technology that determines the subjective cost of a good based on electroencephalographs.

On 17th October the HSE School of Psychology is holding Welcome Lab Day as a continuation of the Nauka O+ festival. Head of School Vasily Klucharev talks to us about what will be on display, which areas of psychology are most popular today and whether it is possible to use brain stimulation to make people conform.

It’s become fashionable to take an interest in science and research, and there are lots of researchers and academics at HSE who do in addition to carrying out research are gifted enough to be able to explain it in an engaging way to other people. You can meet them and learn about the latest research breakthroughs at the NAUKA 0+ festival, which gets underway in Moscow on October 9. Here’s an outline of what HSE offers as part of NAUKA 0+.

Can the brain be linked directly to the computer? What areas of the brain are involved in speech recognition? What impacts on decision-making and how to other people influence this process? Can you calculate people's inclination to take risks? Participants in the 'Cognitive Control, Communication and Perception: Psychological and Neurobiological Aspects' conference, which took place September 29-30, 2015 at the Center for Neuro-economics and Cognitive Research at HSE.

lectures will be delivered by HSE scholars at Gorky Park as part of HSE Day. Lectures will be delivered in both Russian and English.

On August 30th and 31st, the Higher School of Economics is hosting the first international workshop on the neurobiology of social influence. The event is being organised by the HSE Centre for Cognition & Decision Making.

There are numerous ways of impacting people’s decisions, you can convince, intimidate, hypnotise, or use particular tools on certain parts of the brain. Why do scientists do this and what do these experiments show? Vasily Klucharev, Head of HSE’s School of Psychology answers questions posed by Olga Orlova, who hosts the Hamburg Score programme on Russia’s Public Television Channel.

HSE Scholars Co-author International Encyclopaedia of the Brain Vasily Klucharev, Leading Research Fellow at the HSE Centre for Cognition & Decision Making, and Anna Shestakova, Director of the Centre, have become co-authors of a chapter in ‘Brain Mapping’, a three-volume encyclopaedic collection.

On March 25, Samuel McClure, Assistant Professor of Psychology at Stanford University, will give a lecture called ‘Neuroeconomics: Cognitive and Neural Processes in Delay Discounting’ at HSE. Samuel McClure recently agreed to speak with the HSE news service about his research and what he aims to accomplish in terms of collaboration with specialists at HSE.

When people have a choice, they can either rely on their own information or on that received from those around them. The more emotional an individual's relationship with their own data, the higher the likelihood that, when making a decision, they will be led by that rather than by other people's opinions. This also applies to investors' activity on the financial markets – as research by HSE Psychology Faculty Dean Vasily Klyucharev, and researchers from the University of Basel Rafael Huber and Jörg Rieskamp

Will internet education replace traditional universities? Where are lectures harder to give – in the classroom or in front of the camera? Would George Clooney be convincing in the role of a real teacher? The Dean of the HSE’s Faculty of Psychology Vasily Klyucharev, who conducts a neuroeconomics course on Coursera, provides answers to these questions.

This year the Postgraduate School of Psychology will admit 10 individuals for state-funded spots. Those selected will attend courses that correspond with their areas of academic interest and work in laboratories using the most modern equipment.

From June 1 to August 15 the HSE will be accepting applications from Russian citizens for the English language Master’s programme ‘Cognitive sciences: from neurons to cognition’ (international students can file applications at any time until July 15). A competition for funded places is open to students with a wide variety of specialisations and will be judged on their portfolios.

The fact – well known to political consultants – that people tend to go along with the crowd can be explained by a brain mechanism which has helped our survival as a species. Every time we differ from others, our brain responds by triggering an 'error signal', causing us to change our opinion in favour of the majority, reveals a study by Vasily Klucharev