Explore Spatial Cognition: How the Brain Perceives Space

Jennifer M. Groh is a professor at Duke University, where she has taught since 2006. Her research focuses on how the brain processes spatial information across different sensory systems, and how spatial codes influence other cognitive functions. She is the author of Making Space: How the Brain Knows Where Things Are (Harvard University Press, 2014). Much of her work explores the differences in how the visual and auditory systems encode location, and how vision can influence hearing. Her laboratory has shown that neurons in auditory brain regions respond not only to sounds but also to the direction of gaze and visual stimuli, challenging the assumption that sensory pathways remain separate at early stages. This work offers insight into multisensory interactions such as lip-reading and ventriloquism. Dr. Groh completed her undergraduate degree in biology at Princeton University in 1988, followed by advanced studies in neuroscience at the University of Michigan (Master’s, 1990), University of Pennsylvania (Ph.D., 1993), and Stanford University (postdoctoral, 1994-1997). She holds faculty appointments in the Center for Cognitive Neuroscience, the Duke Institute for Brain Sciences, and the Departments of Neurobiology and Psychology & Neuroscience at Duke. Her research has been supported by prestigious organizations, including the John S. Guggenheim Foundation, NIH, NSF, and the McKnight Endowment Fund for Neuroscience.