Study Finds GABA Cells Help Fight Alcoholism
Scientists of the Higher School of Economics, Indiana University, and École normale supérieure clarified how alcohol influences the dopamine and inhibitory cells in the midbrain that are involved in the reward system and the formation of dependency on addictive drugs. The results of the study were published in the article ‘Dynamical ventral tegmental area circuit mechanisms of alcohol-dependent dopamine release’.
Researchers Investigate Why Older People Read More Slowly
One of the most obvious changes that comes with ageing is that people start doing things more slowly. Numerous studies have shown that ageing also affects language processing. Even neurologically healthy people speak, retrieve words and read more slowly as they get older. But is this slowdown inevitable? Researchers from the Higher School of Economics have been working to answer this question in their article ‘No evidence for strategic nature of age-related slowing in sentence processing’.
Post-urban Development: Why Contemporary Megacities Have Lost City Features
A contemporary city expands; it is stitched together with communications, but lacks integrity. Districts, urban communities and practices are so heterogeneous, that they often don’t interact with each other. A united space is split into fragments. Communication is replaced with alienation. Dmitry Zamyatin, geographer and researcher of culture, chief research fellow at the HSE Graduate School of Urbanism, called this phenomenon a ‘post-city’. The scholar spoke to IQ.HSE about this issue.
On Autopilot: How Self-driving Vehicles Fit into the Legal Landscape
IQ.HSE continues its series of HSE* expert reports on the legal regulation of new technologies. The first article in the series dealt with artificial intelligence. Today’s article looks at self-driving vehicles.
Explaining Happiness: Where Emotional Well-being Comes from
It is widely believed that each person finds the source of happiness within themselves and nowhere else. To determine just how true this is, research psychologists conducted a survey on 600 individuals. The results of the study were published in the article Why Do I Feel This Way? Attributional Assessment of Happiness and Unhappiness.
Majority of CIS Economies Halt Growth
Experts from the HSE Centre for Business Tendency Studies (CBTS) analysed for the first time the growth of the manufacturing industry in CIS countries between 2004 and 2016. It was conducted within the framework of a regional project of the United Nations Industrial Development Organization (UNIDO) “Improvement of industrial statistics and development of indicators of industrial performance for policy-relevant analysis in CIS countries”.
Researchers Suggest New Model for Measuring Growth in Students’ Proficiency in MOOCs
Researchers from the Higher School of Economics and KU Leuven have developed a method of measuring growth in students’ proficiency in digital learning environments. It helps to see the progress of online course participants in dynamics, i.e., to understand how students study and how the course works. The results of the study have been published in the journal Behaviour Research Methods.
Researchers Discover Brain Cortex Activity Differences in Children with Arthrogryposis
Researchers from the Higher School of Economics and the Turner Scientific and Research Institute for Children’s Orthopedics have discovered that in children with arthrogryposis, the power of electrical activity in the brain cortex decreases, while its dynamics remains the same as in healthy children. The results of the study were published in the paper ‘Characteristics of electrophysiological activity of the cerebral cortex in children with arthrogryposis’.
National Recipes: How Russian and French Students Cope with Stress
Due to differences in cultural traditions and social standards, people from various countries pursue different behaviour strategies in difficult situations. For example, some become introverted, while others seek other people’s help. Elena Chebotareva, a psychologist from HSE, compared the coping strategies used by French and Russian students, as well as their impact on psychological well-being.
Progressive Movement: Researchers Study Factors Behind Interregional Student Mobility
Benchmark data and the standard of living in the regions of Russia affect student mobility, according to a study by HSE Centre for Institutional Studies researchers Ilya Prakhov and Maria Bocharova. Strong graduates from more educated and wealthy families are more likely to enrol in a university far from home, but the economy usually affects such a decision. High wages draw students towards the regions, while a high cost of living pushes them away.