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Learner Reviews & Feedback for The Brain and Space by Duke University

4.7
stars
654 ratings

About the Course

This course is about how the brain creates our sense of spatial location from a variety of sensory and motor sources, and how this spatial sense in turn shapes our cognitive abilities. Knowing where things are is effortless. But “under the hood,” your brain must figure out even the simplest of details about the world around you and your position in it. Recognizing your mother, finding your phone, going to the grocery store, playing the banjo – these require careful sleuthing and coordination across different sensory and motor domains. This course traces the brain’s detective work to create this sense of space and argues that the brain’s spatial focus permeates our cognitive abilities, affecting the way we think and remember. The material in this course is based on a book I've written for a general audience. The book is called "Making Space: How the Brain Knows Where Things Are", and is available from Amazon, Barnes and Noble, or directly from Harvard University Press. The course material overlaps with classes on perception or systems neuroscience, and can be taken either before or after such classes. Dr. Jennifer M. Groh, Ph.D. Professor Psychology & Neuroscience; Neurobiology Duke University www.duke.edu/~jmgroh Jennifer M. Groh is interested in how the brain process spatial information in different sensory systems, and how the brain's spatial codes influence other aspects of cognition. She is the author of a recent book entitled "Making Space: How the Brain Knows Where Things Are" (Harvard University Press, fall 2014). Much of her research concerns differences in how the visual and auditory systems encode location, and how vision influences hearing. Her laboratory has demonstrated that neurons in auditory brain regions are sometimes responsive not just to what we hear but also to what direction we are looking and what visual stimuli we can see. These surprising findings challenge the prevailing assumption that the brain’s sensory pathways remain separate and distinct from each other at early stages, and suggest a mechanism for such multi-sensory interactions as lip-reading and ventriloquism (the capture of perceived sound location by a plausible nearby visual stimulus). Dr. Groh has been a professor at Duke University since 2006. She received her undergraduate degree in biology from Princeton University in 1988 before studying neuroscience at the University of Michigan (Master’s, 1990), the University of Pennsylvania (Ph.D., 1993), and Stanford University (postdoctoral, 1994-1997). Dr. Groh has been teaching undergraduate classes on the neural basis of perception and memory for over fifteen years. She is presently a faculty member at the Center for Cognitive Neuroscience and the Duke Institute for Brain Sciences at Duke University. She also holds appointments in the Departments of Neurobiology and Psychology & Neuroscience at Duke. Dr. Groh’s research has been supported by a variety of sources including the John S. Guggenheim Foundation, the National Institutes of Health, the National Science Foundation, and the Office of Naval Research Young Investigator Program, the McKnight Endowment Fund for Neuroscience, the John Merck Scholars Program, the EJLB Foundation, the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation, the Whitehall Foundation, and the National Organization for Hearing Research....

Top reviews

KS

Aug 11, 2016

Taught for beginners in a simple and concise way! I especially liked the real life examples given to help students understand the concepts being explained - made it a lot more engaging!

GT

May 17, 2020

Fantastic experience. The instructor took extremely hard concepts and explained them in an excellent and understandable manner.

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76 - 100 of 177 Reviews for The Brain and Space

By Arun K

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Nov 24, 2016

Excellent course to understand the basics of vision and how and why we can see. Thank you.

By Peter G

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Jun 20, 2016

A great intro to neuroscience. Creative videos that are both informative and fun to watch.

By Mengli

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May 30, 2016

I like this class. It provide a lot of detail info. And the teacher is nice and patience.

By ROSANNA G

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Jul 23, 2020

Very interesting. The final quizzes in each series of videos help to clarify everything.

By Безрукова В

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Oct 24, 2019

This course really helps to open your mind and understand the process inside your brain!

By Samantha B G

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Apr 28, 2020

I really enjoyed this course and loved how practical it was to understand.

Thanks a lot.

By Shurronda A

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Jul 17, 2022

This course is so hard even if you by the book, but "I loved every minute"....!!!

By Keith M

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Jul 1, 2016

Amazing learning experience! Put simply yet comprehensively. A must-do course!

By MinCheol L

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Jan 27, 2018

Easy, but interesting enough for additional study on the topic of the course.

By Francis R M M J

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Feb 14, 2021

The course is very informative. I gained a lot of learning from this course.

By Poonam S

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Sep 1, 2020

Very scientific and great experiments to make us understand the concepts

By 张博文

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Sep 12, 2017

You can learn a variety of things in this course. Highly recommend it!

By fzark100

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Nov 6, 2016

As an student in EEE, I think this course really inspire me in various

By Tianyu Z

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Jan 17, 2021

Thanks a lot, Dr. Jennifer M. Groh. I learned a lot in this course!!

By Carlos M G

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Oct 1, 2019

Excellent. Many thanks to the talented teacher Dr. Jennifer M. Groh.

By Helmut K

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Feb 7, 2018

Very interesting and good trigger to dive deeper into that topic!

By Izzy L

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Jul 7, 2022

realy omteresting and extremely good teaching and assessing!!!

By Cat W

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Sep 12, 2017

Crisp presentation of a decent amount of interesting topics!

By P P

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Sep 5, 2018

fantastic enthusiasm from Prof. Groh. Well worth your time.

By Agustín S

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May 28, 2021

Curso muy didáctico y sencillo dentro de su complejidad.

By Gracie M

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Feb 27, 2017

awesome. Course is interesting and engaging. cheers!

By Ícaro D

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Sep 26, 2017

Superb introduction to some concepts of neurology.

By Sakshi

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Jun 19, 2020

A must do course for beginners in neuroscience!!!

By Wei X

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Dec 5, 2018

excellent crash course. Concise and to the point.

By Ji, C

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Apr 21, 2018

Very useful in understanding how our brain works!