News

Researchers at the HSE Institute for Cognitive Neuroscience have studied how the brain responds to audio deepfakes—realistic fake speech recordings created using AI. The study shows that people tend to trust the current opinion of an authoritative speaker even when new statements contradict the speaker’s previous position. This effect also occurs when the statement conflicts with the listener’s internal attitudes. The research has been published in the journal NeuroImage.

Researchers from the HSE Center for Language and Brain took part in brain surgery on a patient who had been seriously wounded in the SMO. A shell fragment approximately five centimetres long entered through the eye socket, penetrated the cranial cavity, and became lodged in the brain, piercing the temporal lobe responsible for language. Surgeons at the Burdenko Main Military Clinical Hospital removed the foreign object while the patient remained conscious. During the operation, neurolinguists conducted language tests to ensure that language function was preserved.

The key objectives of the partnership include joint projects in microelectronics and the involvement of company specialists in supervising the research activities of undergraduate and postgraduate students. Plans also focus on the preparation of joint academic publications, the organisation of industrial placements and student internships, and professional development programmes for the company’s specialists.

Scientists at HSE University have found that current AI models, including ChatGPT and Claude, tend to overestimate the rationality of their human opponents—whether first-year undergraduate students or experienced scientists—in strategic thinking games, such as the Keynesian beauty contest. While these models attempt to predict human behaviour, they often end up playing 'too smart' and losing because they assume a higher level of logic in people than is actually present. The study has been published in the Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization.

Arina Kurbetyeva is a third-year student of the Bachelor’s in Digital Technologies and Telecommunications run by the HSE Tikhonov Moscow Institute of Electronics and Mathematics (MIEM). During her second year, she spent one semester in China at CUHK-Shenzhen University as part of an academic mobility programme. The student shared her experience of studying in China with the HSE News Service.

Gabriella Leelee Enchill is a third-year student at the HSE University Doctoral School of Sociology. She has a bachelor’s in Integrated Community Development from the University for Development Studies in her native Ghana and a master’s in Population and Development from HSE University. Her current research focuses on gender inequality in rural Ghanaian communities. Gabriella spoke to the HSE News Service about what her studies have uncovered about inequality in the region, how women can gain agency by banding together, and why studying these communities helps empower women around the world.

HSE University and the InfoWatch Group of Companies marked the start of a new stage in their collaboration with the signing of a new agreement. The partnership aims to develop educational programmes and strengthen the practical training of specialists for the digital economy. The parties will cooperate in developing and reviewing curricula, and experts from InfoWatch will be involved in teaching and mentoring IT and information security specialists at HSE University.

An international team, including researchers from HSE University, examined an unusual SARS-CoV-2 sample obtained from an HIV-positive patient. Genetic analysis revealed multiple mutations and showed that the virus had been evolving inside the patient’s body for two years. This finding supports the theory that the virus can persist in individuals for years, gradually accumulate mutations, and eventually spill back into the population. The study's findings have been published in Frontiers in Cellular and Infection Microbiology.