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Шестакова Анна Николаевна

Институт когнитивных нейронаук

Профиль на hse.ru ↗ тел.: +7 (495) 772-95-90 | +79119925519
Публикаций
108
Языков
1
Наград
7
Конференций
5
Профиль Публикации (108) Курсы (5)

Профессиональные интересы

нейроэкономиканейробиология речи и языкаобучение

Должности

  • Ведущий научный сотрудник — Институт когнитивных нейронаук, Центр нейроэкономики и когнитивных исследований
  • Директор центра — Институт когнитивных нейронаук, Центр нейроэкономики и когнитивных исследований
  • Руководитель академического совета образовательной программы — Когнитивные науки и технологии: от нейрона к познанию

Био

  • · Начала работать в НИУ ВШЭ в 2013 году.
  • · Научно-педагогический стаж: 12 лет.

Образование

  • 2004 · PhD: тема диссертации: ‘Sensory intelligence’ in the auditory cortex: brain responses to native and non-native phonetic stimuli Dissertation
  • 1994 · Специалитет: Санкт-Петербургский государственный университет, специальность «Физиология», квалификация «Биолог-биофизик»

Опыт работы

  • · 10.2009: Кафедра высшей нервной деятельности. Санкт-петербургский Государственный Университет, РФ, старший научный сотрудник
  • · 10.2012-06.2013: Кафедра психологии поведения и превенции поведенческих аномалий. Санкт-петербургский Государственный Университет, РФ, доцент
  • · 01.2010 –2013: Санкт-петербургский Государственный Университет, EC Темпус проект в области Нейробиотехнологий, Программа «Национальная Сеть Аспирантур по Биотехнологиям в Нейронауках БиоН» (Программа дополнительного образования), член совета и координатор
  • · 12.2007 –09.2008: Центр Исследований Речи (Centre for Speech, Language and the Brain, CSL) Университет Кембриджа, Великобритания, научный сотрудник (researcher)
  • · 05.2007 – 10.2008: Центр Когнитивного Развития и Проблем Развития Речи (Centre for Developmental Language Disorders and Cognitive Neuroscience, DLDCN), Университетский Колледж Лондона, University College London, UCL, Великобритания, приглашенный исследователь (visiting researcher)
  • · 11.2005 –03.2009: Университет Хельсинки. Лидер EC проекта Tempus в области нейробиологии (the project granhtolder and coordinator
  • · 11.2004 – 12.2006: Центр Когнитивных Исследований (Cognitive Brain Research Unit) Университет Хельсинки, Финляндия, post doctoral fellow
  • · 12.2001– 11.2004: Центр Когнитивных Исследований, CBRU, Университет Хельсинки, Финляндия аспирант (PhD student)

Награды и поощрения

  • · Благодарственное письмо проректора НИУ ВШЭ (июнь 2023)
  • · Почетная грамота Высшей школы экономики (сентябрь 2021)
  • · Надбавка за публикацию в журнале из Списка А (и приравненном к нему научном издании) (2025–2026, 2024–2025)
  • · Надбавка за публикацию в международном рецензируемом научном издании (2020–2021, 2019–2020, 2017–2019)
  • · Надбавка за регулярные публикации в международных рецензируемых научных изданиях (2021–2026)
  • · Надбавка за статью в зарубежном рецензируемом журнале (2015–2017)
  • · Лауреат премии "Золотая Вышка" 2019 в номинации Достижения в науке

Гранты и проекты

  • — · на соискание учёной степени кандидата наук

Конференции (5)

Показать все
  • · 2023: 5th International Brain Stimulation Conference (Лиссабон). Доклад: Ambiguous tDCS: variability of the transcranial direct current stimulation effects in a reinforcement learning task
  • · 2016: Annual Meeting of the Society for Neuroeconomics (Берлин). Доклад: Neural mechanisms of choice-induced preference change: EEG study
  • · 2016: Biomag 2016 (Сеул). Доклад: MEG correlates of internalization of social influence
  • · 2016: V СЪЕЗД ФИЗИОЛОГОВ СНГ (Сочи). Доклад: Механизмы обучения с подкреплением при социальном влиянии
  • · 2015: Annual Meeting of the Society for Neuroeconomics (Майами). Доклад: Neural mechanisms of post-decisional spreading of alternatives: EEG study

Идентификаторы исследователя

Публикации (108)

Peers Are as Persuasive as Experts in Reducing Willingness to Pay for Sugary Foods

2025 · ARTICLE · en

Non-communicable diseases are influenced by multiple genetic, physiological, environmental, and behavioral factors, with dietary sugar consumption representing one of the key modifiable risk determinants. Interventions aimed at reducing sugar intake often rely on persuasive health messaging by experts, yet it remains unclear whether the expertise of the narrator of the message is an indispensable component of a persuasive healthy eating call. To address this question, the present study directly compares the effect of different types of social endorsers on willingness to pay (WTP) for sugary food, including experts and peer endorsers. Eighty-eight healthy participants were randomly assigned to three groups: expert (N = 30), peer (N = 29), and multiple peers (N = 29). They evaluated their WTP for sugar-containing, sugar-free, and non-edible products before and after exposure to audio healthy eating interventions delivered by either a nutrition expert or university student peer(s). All audio interventions significantly decreased participants' WTP for sugar-containing products compared to sugar-free products. No significant differences were found between the effectiveness of peer and expert persuasion in reducing WTP for sugar-containing products. Peer-delivered healthy eating calls can be as effective as expert-delivered interventions in decreasing WTP for sugar-containing products. These findings highlight the potential of peer social influence in public health interventions in addition to expert calls.

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Online Repetitive Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation of Dorsomedial and Dorsolateral Prefrontal Cortex in Cognition Decision Making, and Cognitive Dissonance

2025 · ARTICLE · en

Transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) is a powerful method for revealing causal links between specific brain regions and cognitive functions. While offline TMS has traditionally dominated cognitive neuroscience research, online repetitive TMS (rTMS) presents undoubted advantages, enabling stimulation concurrent with task performance. Leveraging advancements in this stimulation method, the study introduces a novel online rTMS protocol utilizing neuronavigation and robotic systems to precisely target dorsolateral and dorsomedial prefrontal cortices during an experimental procedure. Moreover, the utility of online rTMS in investigating the neural mechanisms underlying cognitive dissonance and neurochronometry of the choice-induced preference change was explored. For that purpose, a protocol for the high-frequency online rTMS was applied during the procedure with a within-subject blocked design and two control conditions. The study leads to principal conclusions for future TMS research, such as the importance of a proper set of time, location, and parameters of the stimulation, electric field modulation, and appropriate control conditions.

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The Impact of the Multisensory Integration of Texture, Music, and Smell on the Taste and Pleasantness of Food

2025 · ARTICLE · en

This study examined the effect of texture, music, and smell on the taste and pleasantness of food. Fifty-three volunteers assessed the bitterness and sweetness of carrots of three different textures (puréed, boiled, and chipped) while listening to music and/or smelling vanilla or coffee and evaluated the pleasantness of food with music, with smell alone, and with music and smell together. The auditory and olfactory stimuli used were either congruent or incongruent with bitter-tasting and sweet-tasting foods. We found that music or smell modulated food taste only when they were congruent with it. While congruent music or smell, presented alone, affected taste and hedonic valuation, their simultaneous presentation did not show a comparable effect. Further experiments with different stimuli or a combination of modalities would be necessary to draw final conclusions on whether the concurrent presentation of music and smell has an additive effect on taste.

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Neurophysiological markers of hedonic taste assessment

2025 · ARTICLE · en

In recent years, there has been significant interest in studying hedonistic food experiences using neurophysiological methods within the field of neuroscience. Understanding the neural mechanisms behind the perception of pleasure and aversion to food stimuli has implications for both the fundamental processes of human sensory and emotional taste processing and for addressing health-related issues such as obesity and eating disorders. In our study, we used functional near-infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS), heart rate (HR), electrodermal activity (EDA), and electromyography (EMG) to measure brain and peripheral nervous system reactions to pleasant and neutral foods. Using fNIRS, we found that while the insula was activated in response to subjectively pleasant food, the right precentral gyrus was activated in response to neutral taste. This finding suggests interhemispheric asymmetry in relation to neutral taste. The EMG results demonstrated that the corrugator facial muscle was sensitive to neutral food, whereas the zygomaticus facial muscle was sensitive to pleasant food. EDA responses were larger for pleasant food, and HR increased in response to all food stimuli. The convergence of neuroimaging and peripheral physiological results provides a powerful framework for advancing our understanding of hedonistic responses to food. By elucidating the neural and physiological bases of food hedonics, researchers can gain insights into the complex nature of human appetite.

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Analysis of the EEG Rhythms During Viewing an Emotional Video as a Biomarker of Psycho-Emotional State

2024 · ARTICLE · en

To test a person's psycho-emotional state, various methods are used, one of which is a reaction to an emotional video sequence. Such a reaction can make it possible to assess the degree of a person's involvement in certain emotional events. However, there are few methods to assess psycho-emotional status objectively. One of the sensitive markers is the analysis of a subject's electroencephalogram (EEG), requiring appropriate videos and EEG analyses. Here, a unique video sequence was chosen that evokes positive emotions in the first part and empathy/sadness in the final part. Therefore, evaluating the transition dynamics from one emotion to another is possible. The analysis showed that such a transition is reliably reflected in the change in the amplitude of rhythms in the beta and gamma ranges of the EEG, as well as their topography. The proposed approach may be unique for assessing a person's psycho-emotional state dynamics.

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EEG Face Oddball Paradigm as the Test for Emotional Reaction

2024 · ARTICLE · en

One method for assessing human emotional reactions is considered paradigms involving the presentation of affective images, including facial expressions, which are among the most familiar and noticeable stimuli in our visual environment. Electroencephalography event-related potentials (ERP) to various stimuli are used as sensitive tests for determining categorical perception of specific stimulus modalities. The oddball ERP paradigm, presenting angry and happy faces, could be a test for determining a person's emotional reaction. Our results showed that ERP data revealed major response peaks at 120, 212, and 420 ms (measured by global field power), presumably corresponding to P2, N170, and N400 ERP components. All the peaks exhibited differences in the amplitude of responses to the standard and deviant, suggesting variations in the processing of faces with happy and angry expressions. Cluster analysis showed that at the first peak, there was a cluster of 4 occipital electrodes. At the 2nd peak, there were 3 clusters of 2 electrodes (parietal, frontocentral, parietalocentral) and not a single cluster was found at the 3rd peak.

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The relationship between charitable giving and emotional facial expressions: Results from affective computing

2024 · ARTICLE · en

This study investigated the relationship between emotional states (valence, arousal, and six basic emotions) and donation size in pet charities, and it compared the effectiveness of affective computing and emotion self-report methods in assessing attractiveness. Using FaceReader software and self-report, we measured the emotional states of participants (N = 45) during the donation task. The results showed that sadness, happiness, and anger were significantly related to donation size. Sadness and anger increased donations, whereas happiness decreased them. Arousal was not significantly correlated with the willingness to donate. These results are supported by both methods, whereas the self-reported data regarding the association of surprise, fear, and disgust with donation size are inconclusive. Thus, unpleasant emotions increase donation size, and combining affective computing with self-reported data improves the prediction of the effectiveness of a charity appeal. This study contributes to the understanding of the relationship between emotions and charitable behavior toward pet charities and evaluates the effectiveness of marketing mix elements using affective computing. The limitations include the laboratory setting for this experiment and the lack of measurement of prolonged and repeated exposure to unpleasant charity appeals.

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Regionally specific cortical lateralization of abstract and concrete verb processing: Magnetic mismatch negativity study

2024 · ARTICLE · en

The neural underpinnings of processing concrete and abstract semantics remain poorly understood. Previous fMRI studies have shown that multimodal and amodal neural networks respond differentially to different semantic types; importantly, abstract semantics activates more left-lateralized networks, as opposed to more bilateral activity for concrete words. Due to the lack of temporal resolution, these fMRI results do not allow to easily separate language- and task-specific brain responses and to disentangle early processing stages from later post-comprehension phenomena. To tackle this, we used magnetoencephalography (MEG), a time-resolved neuroimaging technique, in combination with a task-free oddball mismatch negativity (MMN) paradigm, an established approach to tracking early automatic activation of word-specific memory traces in the brain. We recorded the magnetic MMN responses in 30 healthy adults to auditorily presented abstract and concrete action verbs to assess lateralization of word-specific lexico-semantic processing in a set of neocortical areas. We found that MMN responses to these stimuli showed different lateralization patterns of activity in the upper limb motor area (BA4) and parts of Broca’s area (BA45/BA47) within ~100–350 ms after the word disambiguation point. Importantly, the greater leftward response lateralization for abstract semantics was due to the lesser involvement of the right-hemispheric homologues, not increased left-hemispheric activity. These findings suggest differential region-specific involvement of bilateral sensorimotor systems already in the early automatic stages of processing abstract and concrete action semantics

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How the emotions evoked by homeless pets induce online charitable giving

2024 · ARTICLE · en

In this study, we investigated the relationship between emotions and charitable behavior in the context of pet charities. In particular, we examined the role of pet characteristics such as age, health status, signs of homelessness, and the animal being in the presence of a human as factors in a potential donor’s emotional state (valence and arousal) that are associated with the willingness to donate. We conducted an online experiment in which participants (N = 54) voluntarily donated in response to being presented with pictures of dogs in various conditions. Emotional state was measured as self-reported valence and arousal. Our findings showed that willingness to donate was higher when participants experienced unpleasant emotions with a high arousal. In addition, we found that animals’ apparent sickness and signs of homelessness provoked larger donations, while age (adult or puppy) and being in the presence of a human did not affect charitable behavior. Our study contributes to the research on the effectiveness of charity appeals in the context of pet charities and complements the literature on human prosocial behavior in support of other species. The results have practical implications for the development of advertising on behalf of pet charities as they explore the impact of dogs’ characteristics on donors’ emotions and willingness to donate under ecologically valid conditions, in contrast to previous laboratory studies.

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Evaluating the Influence of Musical and Monetary Rewards on Decision Making through Computational Modelling

2024 · ARTICLE · en

A central question in behavioural neuroscience is how different rewards modulate learning. While the role of monetary rewards is well-studied in decision-making research, the influence of abstract rewards like music remains poorly understood. This study investigated the dissociable effects of these two reward types on decision making. Forty participants completed two decision-making tasks, each characterised by probabilistic associations between stimuli and rewards, with probabilities changing over time to reflect environmental volatility. In each task, choices were reinforced either by monetary outcomes (win/lose) or by the endings of musical melodies (consonant/dissonant). We applied the Hierarchical Gaussian Filter, a validated hierarchical Bayesian framework, to model learning under these two conditions. Bayesian statistics provided evidence for similar learning patterns across both reward types, suggesting individuals' similar adaptability. However, within the musical task, individual preferences for consonance over dissonance explained some aspects of learning. Specifically, correlation analyses indicated that participants more tolerant of dissonance behaved more stochastically in their belief-to-response mappings and were less likely to choose the response associated with the current prediction for a consonant ending, driven by higher volatility estimates. By contrast, participants averse to dissonance showed increased tonic volatility, leading to larger updates in reward tendency beliefs.

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Курсы (5)