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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)

CROSS-CULTURAL STUDY ON THE EFFECT OF PERCEIVED TASTES ASSOCIATED TO SOUNDS ON THE PERCEPTION OF FOOD TEXTURES

2024 · PREPRINT · en

The perception of food is probably one of the most multisensory experience in our daily lives. It also significantly affects our food decisions. Recent researches by psychologists and cognitive neuroscientists reveal how the complex multisensory interactions influence the food experiences we all know and love. The involvement of chefs in studies devoted to multisensory food perception made this topic even more interesting and interactive since many chefs who work in fine-dining restaurants are trying the optimize the customers' dining experiences (Spence, 2015). This topic is mainly studied by analyzing the cross-modal perception among different senses such as vision, taste and auditory. So far, it has been found that color-taste interaction may alter our perception of taste such as the sweets that are served on the white-round shaped plates are perceived 15 percent sweeter than the sweets that are served on black-rectangular shaped plates or stale potato chips are perceived even crispier than freshly made potato chips when the high-pitched crunch biting sound is involved (Zampini and Spence 2004). These findings support the importance of multisensory food experiences in our food decisions and this study will examine how we can nudge people into healthier food choices by using multisensory food perception and also by analyzing if different textures of the same ingredients and their cross-modal interactions with the congruent sounds may alter the consumers' liking of the sustainable foods. Multisensory food perception is quite a new topic that emerged in the last 20 years in relation with the 'neurogastronomy' (Shepherd, 2011). This field is closely related to cross-modal perception and synaesthesia. Even though these two topics have been researched for more than 150 years, there are no fundamental studies focused on the cross-modal perception of different senses in relation of different food products. Previous studies have investigated individual differences in multisensory food perception and suggest that individuals' multisensory food perception significantly differ genetically and culturally (Spence,2015). Several studies have also suggested that taste-sound or taste-color congruency may lead to cut down on sugar and salt consumption since the increased 1 intensity of the taste match among different senses may provide less need of sugar or salt for any food product (Spence,2015 ; Piqueras-Fiszman et al., 2012). Considering these previous results, it is possible to hypothesize that the multisensory approach to food perception can be used to help nudging consumers towards healthier food decisions (Spence and Piqueras-Fiszman, 2014; Marteau et al., 2012). We plan to investigate the cross-modal perception between texture, taste and sound by conducting a behavioural experiment where the participants’ texture, taste and sound congruency will be measured to analyse if the multisensory food congruency may influence consumers’ food decisions and food perceptions. We expect that this study will be able to nudge consumers towards healthier food choices by manipulating food perception in different sensory modalities.

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Neuromodulation of choice-induced preference changes: the tDCS study of cognitive dissonance

2023 · ARTICLE · en

Introduction: Difficult choices between two equally attractive options result in a cognitive discrepancy between dissonant cognitions such as preferences and actions often followed by a sense of psychological discomfort known as cognitive dissonance. It can lead to changes in the desirability of options: the chosen option becomes more desirable, whereas the rejected option is devalued. Despite the ample experimental evidence to show this effect, the neural mechanisms and timing of such choice-induced preference changes are not fully understood. Methods: In this study, we used transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) to modulate the activity of the posterior medial frontal cortex (pMFC), which has been associated with conflict monitoring and choice-induced preference changes in neuroimaging studies. Prior to a revised version of Brehm’s free-choice paradigm, participants in two experiments underwent cathodal (inhibitory) or anodal (excitatory) tDCS of the pMFC compared to sham (placebo) stimulation prior to the choice phase. Results: Our results showed that cathodal tDCS significantly decreased the choice-induced preference change relative to a sham, but only in direct comparisons of rejected options. No significant effect of anodal tDCS in comparison with sham was observed. Discussion: This study replicates the general behavioral effect of cognitive dissonance and provides partial support for the theory of the pMFC contribution to choice-related cognitive dissonance and subsequent preference changes, with possible limitations of an under-sampling for the obtained effect size and an asymmetry in the inhibitory-excitatory effects of non-invasive tDCS.

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Altered evoked responses for motor-related words in children with upper limb motor impairments

2023 · ARTICLE · en

Objective Obstetric brachial plexus palsy (OBPP) and amyoplasia, the classical type of arthrogryposis multiplex congenita, manifest themselves as highly limited mobility of the upper limb. At the same time, according to the embodiment cognition theories, the motor impairments might lead to the alteration of cognitive functions in OBPP/amyoplasia patients. In the current study, we examined whether OBPP/amyoplasia children exhibit altered processing of motor-related verbs. Methods We conducted a case-control study using clinical population and control children. Oddball series were used to elicit mismatch negativity (MMN) EEG responses. The series consisted of limb-related verbs (deviant stimuli) and matched pseudowords (standard stimuli). 27 patients and 32 control children were included in the analysis. Results We showed that MMN waveforms differed between OBPP/amyoplasia children and their control peers in the frontal and temporal electrodes when the stimuli contained hand-related verbs. In particular, the MMN peak latency in the OBPP/amyoplasia children was significantly delayed as compared with the healthy controls. At the same time, neither series with leg-related verbs nor series of pseudowords resulted in statistically significant differences. Conclusions Our findings suggest altered processing of hand-related verbs in OBPP/amyoplasia children with hand-related disabilities. Significance Our results contribute to the growing evidence in support of the theory of embodied cognition, which proposes that various domains of cognition are shaped by bodily interactions with the environment.

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Similar Cognitive Skill Impairment in Children with Upper Limb Motor Disorders Due to Arthrogryposis Multiplex Congenita and Obstetrical Brachial Plexus Palsy

2023 · ARTICLE · en

Arthrogryposis multiplex congenita (AMC) and obstetrical brachial plexus palsy (OBPP) are motor disorders with similar symptoms (contractures and the disturbance of upper limb function). Both conditions present as flaccid paresis but differ from each other in the pathogenesis: AMC is a congenital condition, while OBPP results from trauma during childbirth. Despite this difference, these diseases are identical in terms of their manifestations and treatment programmes. We compared the cognitive skills of children with AMC and OBPP diagnoses with those of healthy children; we also compared the motor skills of impaired children with those of healthy ones. The patients in both groups significantly differed from the healthy children with regard to psychological parameters, such as ‘visual memory capacity’ and ‘thinking’. Moreover, the two groups with children with AMC and OBPP significantly differed from each other in motor skill parameters, such as ‘delayed motor development’, ‘general motor development’, and the ‘level of paresis’. Upper limb motor function in the OBPP children was less impaired compared to that of the AMC children. However, we did not find any significant differences in cognitive deficits between the AMC children and the OBPP children. This may indicate that motor impairment is more significant than the underlying cause for the development of cognitive impairment; however, the factors causing this phenomenon require further study (e.g., social environment, treatment, and rehabilitation programme).

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Neural mechanisms of expert persuasion on willingness to pay for sugar

2023 · ARTICLE · en

Sugar consumption is associated with many negative health consequences. It is, therefore, important to understand what can effectively influence individuals to consume less sugar. We recently showed that a healthy eating call by a health expert can significantly decrease the willingness to pay (WTP) for sugar-containing food. Here, we investigate which aspects of neural responses to the same healthy eating call can predict the efficacy of expert persuasion. Forty-five healthy participants performed two blocks of a bidding task, in which they had to bid on sugar-containing, sugar-free and non-edible products, while their electroencephalography (EEG) was recorded. In-between the two blocks, they listened to a healthy eating call by a nutritionist emphasizing the risks of sugar consumption. We found that after listening to the healthy eating call, participants significantly decreased their WTP for sugar-containing products. Moreover, higher intersubject correlation of EEG (a measure of engagement) during listening to the healthy eating call resulted in a larger decrease in WTP for sugar-containing food. Whether or not a participants’ valuation of a product was highly influenced by the healthy eating call could also be predicted by spatiotemporal patterns of EEG responses to the healthy eating call, using a machine learning classification model. Finally, the healthy eating call increased the amplitude of the P300 component of the visual event-related potential in response to sugar-containing food. Overall, our results shed light on the neural basis of expert persuasion and demonstrate that EEG is a powerful tool to design and assess health-related advertisements before they are released to the public.

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Ambiguous tDCS: variability of the transcranial direct current stimulation effects in a reinforcement learning task

2023 · ARTICLE · en

Transcranial electrical stimulation (TES) is a popular approach for studying and modulating cortical function. According to somatic doctrine, anodal TES increases, while cathodal reduces cortical excitability. Currently, numerous studies use TES in behavioral experiments with no physiological control, relying on the assumption of fairness and complete predictability of stimulation models. However, control reveals the actual effect induced by the stimulation rarely matches one previously modeled. We conducted an experiment where the feedback-related negativity (FRN) amplitude in the loss prevention version of the monetary incentive delay (MID) task was enhanced by cathodal tDCS (1 mA), even though the modulation of suppression was expected according to results obtained previously by Reinhart and Woodman (2014). The montage involved cathodal stimulation of the ventromedial prefrontal cortex. The effects were tested on 30 healthy participants with sham control. Considering auditory stimuli in the MID task, and the fact that one of the auditory evoked potentials (P2) has sources in the prefrontal cortex, we also focused on the changes in the P2 caused by tDCS. Reportedly, P2 is sensitive to neuroplastic remodeling in a variety of auditory training tasks. Contrary to our expectations, cathodal tDCS simultaneously enhanced FRN and suppressed plastic changes in the P2 component linked to the auditory cues. We hypothesize that cathodal tDCS could affect the plastic changes of the P2 component by inhibiting P2 sources, one of which, reportedly, is dorsolateral prefrontal cortex. The present work underlines the multidirectional physiological effects of tDCS that may lead to opposite modulation of neighboring cortical regions and therefore make the observations difficult to interpret. Our results call for future studies using tDCS and suggest more cautious interpretations of tDCS effects in the absence of proper psychophysiological control.

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Application of Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation in Studies of Cognitive Dissonance in Decision Making

2023 · ARTICLE · en

The theory of cognitive dissonance (CD) is tightly linked with studies of the process of making complex decisions. In particular, CD is manifest within the framework of the “free choice paradigm” consisting of reassessment of alternatives as a result of choosing between two similar alternatives via the motivation to reduce internal conflict. The mechanisms of CD are associated with activity in the posterior medial and dorsolateral prefrontal cortex, nucleus accumbens, and posterior cingulate cortex, whose interactions are interpreted differently on the basis of neuroimaging and stimulation study results. One of the key and still unresolved issues in understanding the mechanisms of CD is the neurochronometry of its occurrence – it may be possible to discover this using transcranial magnetic and electrical stimulation methods (TMS and TES). Determination of the temporal sequence of neural CD mechanisms will not only clarify the fundamental nature of making difficult decisions, but will also provide for more effective manipulation of these mechanisms in various applied problems. However, TMS and TES protocols for influencing CD differ in parameters such as target, timing, frequency, stimulation strength, and control conditions, preventing direct comparison of research results. This review presents results from analysis of stimulation studies of CD seeking to identify the temporal patterns of the effect of stimulation on changes in preferences resulting from CD.

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The Possibility of Increasing the Effectiveness of Correcting Motor Skills and Cognitive Functions Using Noninvasive Brain Stimulation in Humans

2023 в печати · ARTICLE · en

Many studies demonstrating the effects of noninvasive stimulation on various brain functions have been reported. The main methods used for such stimulation are transcranial electrical stimulation (TES) and transcranial magnetic (TMS) stimulation. A number of stimulation protocols are already being implemented in the clinic, though the reliability of the effects of these approaches raises a number of questions. This review examines the effects of TES and TMS on the development and correction of motor skills and cognitive functions and how they are interconnected. Particular emphasis is placed on the effects associated with correction of motor skills, as the movement-associated corticospinal system (the main target of stimulation) can be assessed objectively using a variety of neuroimaging and neurostimulation methods, providing more accurate assessment of the mechanisms of action of noninvasive brain stimulation (NBS). In addition, studies using NBS show a relationship between cognitive and motor functions, which indicates the need for comprehensive studies in these areas in the context of seeking to improve the effectiveness of motor skills. Both the individual effects of TES and TMS and the effects of their combined use are considered here. The authors believe that there is no unequivocal answer to the question of whether noninvasive stimulation provides a route to the reliable correction of the development of motor and cognitive skills. The data presented in this review suggest that such correction is possible. This aspect is important both for clinical medicine (patients with motor disorders) and for other areas – sports medicine, educational technologies, etc.

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Neurochronometry of choice-induced preference changes: when do preferences actually change?

2023 · ARTICLE · en

According to cognitive dissonance theory, a discrepancy between preferences and actions may lead to the revaluation of preferences, increasing preference for the chosen options and decreasing for the rejected options. This phenomenon is known as the spreading of alternatives (SoA), which results in a choice-induced preference change (CIPC). Previous neuroimaging studies have identified several brain regions that play a role in cognitive dissonance. However, the neurochronometry of the cognitive mechanisms underlying CIPC is a topic of debate. In other words, does it occur during the difficult choice, immediately after the choice, or when people encounter the options again? Furthermore, it remains unclear what is the exact time point, relative to the onset of facing options, either within the choice or after it, when the attitudes start to be revised. We argue that applying online protocols of transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS), during or immediately after the choice process, could be the most efficient way to better understand the temporal dynamics of the SoA effect. TMS allows for achieving high temporal and spatial resolution, modulating the activity of areas of interest, and examining the causal relationships. Besides, unlike the offline TMS, the online instrument allows tracking of the neurochronometry of attitude change, by varying stimulation onsets and durations with respect to the option stimuli. Based on scrupulous analysis of previous findings, employing online TMS studies of conflict monitoring, cognitive control, and CIPC neuroimaging results, we conclude that the use of online TMS is critical to examine the neurochronometry of CIPC.

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The prediction of market-level food choices by the neural valuation signal

2023 · ARTICLE · en

Neuroimaging studies have demonstrated the ability to use the brain activity of a group of individuals to forecast the behavior of an independent group. In the current study, we attempted to forecast aggregate choices in a popular restaurant chain. During our functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) study, 22 participants were exposed to 78 photos of dishes from a new menu of a popular restaurant chain. In addition to self-reported preferences, fMRI data was extracted from an a priori domain-general and task-specific region of interest—the ventral striatum. We investigated the relationship between the neural activity and real one-year sales provided by the restaurant chain. Activity in the ventral striatum, which was defined using the task-specific region of interest, significantly correlated (r = 0.28, p = 0.01) with one-year sales. A regression analysis, which included ventral striatum activity together with the objective characteristics of the products (price and weight), behavioral, and survey data, showed R2 values of 0.33. Overall, our results confirm prior studies, which have suggested, that brain activity in the reward system of a relatively small number of individuals can forecast the aggregate choice of a larger independent group of people.

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Курсы (5)