Neurophysiologists cast doubt on existence of free will

Researchers from the Higher School of Economics conducted a meta-analysis by compiling data across 17 neuroimaging studies on working memory in children.

Luca Iemi from HSE University, jointly with Niko A Busch from Westfälische Wilhelms-Universität, have found that the state of excitability of the brain — indexed byspontaneous neural oscillations - biases a person’s subjective perceptual experience, rather than their decision-making strategy. The findings were published in eNeurounder the title ‘Moment-to-moment fluctuations in neuronal excitability bias subjective perception rather than decision-making’.

Researchers from the Higher School of Economics have shown that by stimulating the frontal cortex, a person’s financial risk appetite can be increased temporarily. Their article on the cognitive mechanisms of risky decision-making was published in eNeuro, an international peer-reviewed scientific journal published by the Society for Neuroscience.

People are capable of estimating the mean size of visible objects and their approximate number simultaneously, showing for the first time that these two cognitive processes are independent of each other and do not follow the rules of mathematical statistics.

A new study by HSE researchers has uncovered a new brain mechanism that generates cognitive dissonance – a mental discomfort experienced by a person who simultaneously holds two or more contradictory beliefs or values, or experiences difficulties in making decisions. The results of the study have been published in the paper ‘Open Access Neural Mechanisms of Cognitive Dissonance (Revised): an EEG Study’in The Journal of Neuroscience.