Processing of a spoken narrative in the human brain is shaped by family cultural background

ABSTRACTUsing neuroimaging, we studied influence of family cultural background on processing of an audiobook in human brain. The audiobook depicted life of two young Finnish men, one with the Finnish and the other with the Russian family background. Shared family cultural background enhanced similarity of narrative processing in the brain at prelexical, word, sentence, and narrative levels. Similarity was also enhanced in brain areas supporting imagery. The cultural background was further reflected as semantic differences in word lists by which the subjects described what had been on their minds when they heard the audiobook during neuroimaging. Strength of social identity shaped word, sent…

Polymer dynamics in time-dependent periodic potentials.

Dynamics of a discrete polymer in time-dependent external potentials is studied with the master equation approach. We consider both stochastic and deterministic switching mechanisms for the potential states and give the essential equations for computing the stationary state properties of molecules with internal structure in time-dependent periodic potentials on a lattice. As an example, we consider standard and modified Rubinstein-Duke polymers and calculate their mean drift and effective diffusion coefficient in the two-state non-symmetric flashing potential and symmetric traveling potential. Rich non-linear behavior of these observables is found. By varying the polymer length, we find cur…

Mining road traffic accidents

Numerical studies of transport in complex many-particle systems far from equilibrium

In this Thesis, transport in complex nonequilibrium many-particle systems is studied using numerical master equation approach and Monte Carlo simulations. We focus on the transport of the center-of-mass of deformable objects with internal structure. Two physical systems are studied in detail: linear polymers using the Rubinstein-Duke model and single-layer metal-on-metal atomic islands using a semi-empirical lattice model. Polymers and islands are driven out of thermodynamic equilibrium by strong static and time-dependent external forces. Topics covered in this work include introductions to nonequilibrium statistical mechanics, master equations and computational methods, with construction a…

Processing of an Audiobook in the Human Brain Is Shaped by Cultural Family Background

Funding Information: Funding: This work was supported by the Academy of Finland [257811, 273469, 276643, 287474, 332309]; Jane and Aatos Erkko Foundation; Emil Aaltonen Foundation; Paulo Foundation and Russian Science Foundation grant [No: 22-48-08002]. Publisher Copyright: © 2022 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. Perception of the same narrative can vary between individuals depending on a listener’s previous experiences. We studied whether and how cultural family background may shape the processing of an audiobook in the human brain. During functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI), 48 healthy volunteers from two different cultural family backgrounds listened to an audi…

Single-layer metal-on-metal islands driven by strong time-dependent forces

Non-linear transport properties of single-layer metal-on-metal islands driven with strong static and time-dependent forces are studied. We apply a semi-empirical lattice model and use master equation and kinetic Monte Carlo simulation methods to compute observables such as the velocity and the diffusion coefficient. Two types of time-dependent driving are considered: a pulsed rotated field and an alternating field with a zero net force (electrophoretic ratchet). Small islands up to 12 atoms were studied in detail with the master equation method and larger ones with simulations. Results are presented mainly for a parametrization of Cu on Cu(001) surface, which has been the main system of int…

Characteristics of the polymer transport in ratchet systems

Molecules with complex internal structure in time-dependent periodic potentials are studied by using short Rubinstein-Duke model polymers as an example. We extend our earlier work on transport in stochastically varying potentials to cover also deterministic potential switching mechanisms, energetic efficiency and non-uniform charge distributions. We also use currents in the non-equilibrium steady state to identify the dominating mechanisms that lead to polymer transportation and analyze the evolution of the macroscopic state (e.g., total and head-to-head lengths) of the polymers. Several numerical methods are used to solve the master equations and nonlinear optimization problems. The domina…