Language Mapping in the Operating Room: HSE Neurolinguists Assist Surgeons in Complex Brain Surgery
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.
Researchers from the HSE Center for Language and Brain, Maria Protopova (Prokopyeva) and Irina Provlotskaya, worked in the operating room as part of a multidisciplinary team and administered standardised language tasks during direct cortical stimulation. During the operation, the patient was asked to name objects shown in pictures and to repeat pseudowords. These tasks help identify brain regions that are critically important for language and allow clinicians to detect in a timely manner any changes that may occur during the intervention.
Research Assistant, Center for Language and Brain
'If a patient begins to make errors while performing language tasks, this may indicate that the stimulation is affecting areas critical for language. Once these areas are identified, surgeons avoid them during subsequent stages of the operation.'
In this case, the procedure differed in that the patient remained conscious throughout the entire intervention, including the stage of opening the skull. More commonly, during such operations, the patient is kept under anaesthesia until cortical stimulation and language testing begin, after which they are placed back under anaesthesia.
Junior Research Fellow, Center for Language and Brain
'The language testing procedure was generally structured in the same way as in standard awake surgeries, such as the removal of an epileptic lesion or a mass, but in this case it was particularly important to monitor language continuously. We used object-naming tasks during cortical stimulation to identify language-related areas so that surgeons could bypass them during resection. Pseudoword repetition was used directly during the removal of the foreign body to ensure timely detection of any language impairments that might arise while manipulating tissue near the language pathways.'
The HSE Center for Language and Brain has been developing a clinical focus and actively collaborating with leading hospitals and medical centres in Moscow, Nizhny Novgorod, Novosibirsk, and other cities in Russia, as well as abroad. This collaboration helps introduce modern neurolinguistic methods into clinical practice, increasing the safety of neurosurgical interventions and improving the precision with which functionally significant brain areas are preserved.
Director, Center for Language and Brain
'Tests developed by the centre’s specialists for intraoperative language mapping—including object and action naming from pictures and other standardised language tasks—have been successfully used in awake surgeries for nearly 10 years. It is essential for us that these techniques function not only as research tools but also as clinical standards, effectively applied in neurosurgical practice.'
See also:
Two Years of Growth or Decline: How to Choose an Investment Strategy
Economists from HSE University, together with colleagues from international universities, have analysed stock market movements over almost a century and proposed an investment strategy that could have delivered returns nearly twice as high as the market average. Their research suggests following a momentum strategy during periods of sustained market growth and switching to a value strategy after prolonged market declines. The study has been published in the Journal of Banking and Finance.
Researchers Reveal Link Between Attention and Communication Difficulties in Autism
Researchers at HSE University have examined how communication difficulties in children with autism are related to brain function. The findings show that not only language networks but also attention networks play an important role. The weaker the connections involved in maintaining focus and switching attention, the more pronounced communication difficulties were. The study has been published in European Child & Adolescent Psychiatry.
HSE Initiates Development of Ethical Standard for Anthropomorphic Robots
Beyond technological solutions, the development of anthropomorphic robotics also demands ethical ones. In July 2026, the HSE Institute for Robotics Systems hosted a foresight session dedicated to developing an Ethical Standard for Anthropomorphic Robotic Complexes. Representatives from businesses, government bodies, scientific organisations, and universities gathered to discuss key ethical and legal issues surrounding the development of anthropomorphic robotic complexes. The main outcome of the meeting was a draft of the Ethical Standard.
Physicists at HSE University and FIAN Discover Way to 'Photograph' Sound for Testing Materials Used in 6G Communications
Researchers at HSE University, in collaboration with colleagues from the Lebedev Physical Institute of the Russian Academy of Sciences (FIAN), have developed a method for rapidly determining how firmly a film is bonded to a substrate. This is important for the creation of ultrahigh-frequency acoustic filters, which are key components of next-generation 5G and 6G communications. For the first time, researchers have succeeded in measuring the lateral rigidity of the bond between a two-dimensional material film and a substrate in this way. The study results have been published in Applied Physics Letters.
Scientists Create Open Dataset for Studying Concentration
A team of Russian researchers, including scientists from HSE University–St Petersburg, has developed the first open multimodal dataset containing recordings of brain activity, heart function, and video observations to help researchers understand what happens in the human brain during deep concentration. In the future, the dataset could accelerate the development of neural interfaces, rehabilitation technologies, and AI systems. The article has been published in Scientific Data.
Scientists Propose Method for More Efficient Resource Use in Machine Learning
An international group of researchers, including mathematicians from the AI and Digital Science Institute at the HSE Faculty of Computer Science, has provided a theoretical justification for a simple and computationally efficient method of estimating uncertainty in Stochastic Gradient Descent (SGD). The paper has been published on the scientific preprint server arXiv.org and presented at AISTATS 2026.
HSE University to Launch New AI Supercomputer
HSE University is preparing to launch its second supercomputer. The new cluster will be primarily dedicated to artificial intelligence (AI) workloads and will complement the existing cHARISMa supercomputer. It is scheduled to become operational by the end of 2026.
Team Success: Aligning Means with Objectives
In corporations, sports, and academia, people often face challenges they cannot handle alone. In such cases, selecting the right team is crucial. Tatiana Mayskaya, Associate Professor at the HSE Faculty of Economic Sciences and the International College of Economics and Finance, together with colleagues from foreign universities, examined team characteristics and found that less diverse teams are better suited to objectives where a high average performance is important, whereas more diverse teams are preferable when avoiding failure is critical. The paper has been published in Economic Theory.
HSE MIEM Students to Develop Two Satellites from Scratch for Orbital Experiments
The devices, created by student teams, will conduct space research on the properties of promising solar cells, on-board energy storage systems, and serial electronics for student satellites.
Economists Propose More Effective Approach to Reducing Smoking
Economists at HSE University have examined how smokers respond to changes in cigarette prices. When tobacco prices increase, cigarette consumption does not always decline. In fact, spending on tobacco may even rise: according to the researchers, a 1% decrease in cigarette affordability leads to a 0.28% increase in per capita tobacco expenditure. The findings suggest that to reduce smoking rates, tobacco prices must rise faster than household incomes. The study has been published in Voprosy Statistiki.