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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

GT

May 17, 2020

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

TM

Jan 31, 2020

It was a fun course. I really learnt a lot, through her lectures, especially the different experiments. Really appreciate Coursera for providing with financial aid for me to take the class :)

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101 - 125 of 177 Reviews for The Brain and Space

By Joy S

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Jan 28, 2017

surprisingly interesting. Had a lot of new ideas

By Nathan A

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Sep 25, 2019

Merci beaucoup pour ce cours qui m'a passionné !

By Shaimaa A

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Jul 9, 2020

This the best course ever! Thank you very much

By Akella K M

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Feb 5, 2021

Best course on brain science and cognition!

By Jenny O

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Jun 16, 2018

Very interesting course clearly presented.

By Muhammad U

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Jun 20, 2016

Istepretcusaeeeen. e srv vh iero cfe h t

By Dr R d

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Aug 29, 2019

very nice and informative , thank you .

By Alexandros Z

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Sep 13, 2020

It was fun and a learned a lot of stuff

By MAYURI P

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Jun 7, 2020

Amazing concepts . THANK YOU SO MUCH .

By Ajamalul

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Dec 24, 2017

Enjoyable course that taught me lots

By GAN K C

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Sep 2, 2019

Feeling great to learn this course!

By KyungYeon R

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Aug 14, 2017

this is the most interesting course

By Deleted A

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May 7, 2017

Outstanding course and Professor!

By Ben B

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Aug 3, 2023

Good course, very informative.

By Yoomee S

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Jun 6, 2019

very comprehensive course!!

By Sol Y

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Jun 16, 2018

The course was interesting

By Rafaela R

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Jul 18, 2016

Loved it!!

Excellent course

By Nyam-Ochir B (

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Nov 18, 2016

Excellent course to take!

By Marisol P

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May 10, 2019

Me gusto mucho el curso

By Takunda S

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Mar 11, 2022

Excellent experience.✅

By Godofredo B e S

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Oct 7, 2025

Curso de excelência.

By Siju V

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Sep 11, 2016

good for beginners

By Tatiana K

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Aug 8, 2017

Great course :)