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How Your Thoughts Are Built & How You Can Shape Them | Dr. Jennifer Groh

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Nov 10, 2025

Guest

Dr. Jennifer Groh

In this engaging conversation, Dr. Jennifer Groh, a psychology and neuroscience professor at Duke University, explores how our brain integrates sensory information. She explains that our thoughts are shaped by our focus, highlighting techniques to enhance concentration and happiness. Groh discusses the intriguing dynamics of sound localization, the impact of music on social bonds, and strategies to improve cognitive performance. Additionally, she shares insights on how our brain's mapping of sensory experiences influences our perceptions and thoughts.

02:16:49

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Episode notes

Headphones Versus Room Sound

Headphone listening places sound 'in your head' unless spatial cues recreate external audio.
Recreating outside sound requires timing, level, and ear-specific frequency filtering.

Reverberation Shapes Distance Perception

Reflections produce multiple delayed copies of sound; the brain integrates these to infer distance and space.
Early-arriving direct sound plus reverberation patterns help locate a speaker in a room.

Rhythm As Social Glue

Rhythm likely evolved to coordinate group action and amplify collective signals for defense or cooperation.
Music's universality may stem from social and reproductive advantages beyond literal information exchange.

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Superior Colliculus and Early Interest

03:43 • 2min

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Dynamic Maps & Eye Movements

05:52 • 3min

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Where Senses Merge Beyond Awareness

09:05 • 50sec

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Screens, Simulated Sound, and Ventriloquism

09:55 • 4min

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Is Audiovisual Integration Learned?

14:01 • 19sec

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How We Localize Sound

Self-Voice Perception & Bone Conduction

19:51 • 6min

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Headphone Safety & Bone-Conduction Use

26:02 • 3min

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Headphones Versus Room Sound

28:58 • 2min

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Perceiving Distance with Hearing

31:09 • 2min

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Practical Sound Cues: Thunder and Safety

32:52 • 3min

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Using Reflections to Judge Space

36:22 • 3min

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Music, Rhythm, and Social Bonding

39:51 • 10min

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Music's Emotional & Social Roles

49:31 • 8min

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Music, Memory, and Communication

57:19 • 6min

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Multisensory Maps and Eye Position Effects

01:03:20 • 2min

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Top-Down Control of the Ear

01:05:22 • 3min

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Eardrum Movements Time-Locked to Eye Movements

Evolutionary Layers of Sensory Systems

01:16:49 • 4min

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Hearing Low vs High Frequencies and Communication

01:20:44 • 4min

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Sound in Large Spaces and Resonance

01:24:15 • 4min

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Sound, Emotion, and Social Cohesion

01:28:10 • 6min

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What Is Thought? Sensory Simulations Theory

01:33:45 • 2min

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Attention, Resource Allocation, and Flow

01:36:06 • 3min

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Using Environment and Intervals to Boost Focus

01:38:39 • 3min

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Mental Work as Interval Training

Music Performance, Adrenaline, and Choking

01:50:47 • 3min

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Chickens, Visual Focus, and Attention Exercises

01:54:17 • 7min

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Practical Strategies to Manage Phone Distraction

02:01:03 • 9min

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Designing Personal Systems for Focus

02:09:58 • 2min

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Lab Contexts and Environmental Cues for Productivity

• Mentioned in 40 episodes

Protocols: An Operating Manual for the Human Body

Andrew Huberman

Protocols provides simple, powerful, and evidence-based solutions to life’s most common challenges. Designed to improve your mental health, physical health, and performance, these guidelines are customizable, allowing you to adapt them to your specific needs. With his clear and engaging style, Dr. Huberman explains the scientific principles behind each protocol and how they can deliver immediate, effective results. Protocols is your essential road map for achieving optimal health.

#70432

Making Space

How the Brain Knows Where Things Are

Dr. Jennifer Groh

Making Space explains the complex neural processes by which the brain determines where things are in space. Jennifer Groh describes how sensory inputs such as light, sound, and pressure are measured and integrated by the brain to navigate three-dimensional space. The book also argues that spatial processing underlies many cognitive functions, including memory and reasoning. It covers how the brain locates sounds by detecting minute timing differences between ears and how balance organs contribute to body posture awareness. The book highlights the brain's remarkable ability to use spatial representations to aid memory recall and cognitive tasks, revealing powers of spatial cognition previously unrecognized.

My guest is Dr. Jennifer Groh, PhD, professor of psychology and neuroscience at Duke University. She explains how our brain encodes sights and sounds and integrates them so we can navigate and understand the world around us. She explains what thoughts really are and how what you focus on determines your thoughts, not just in that moment but your future thoughts too. We discuss this in the context of how to improve your level of focus and happiness and how to complete tasks and task-switch more effectively. We also discuss how you can rewire the neural circuits that underlie your default patterns of thinking and attention.

Sponsors

AGZ by AG1: https://drinkagz.com/huberman

Lingo: https://hellolingo.com/huberman

Wealthfront*: https://wealthfront.com/huberman

Our Place: https://fromourplace.com/huberman

Helix Sleep: https://helixsleep.com/huberman

LMNT: https://drinklmnt.com/huberman

Timestamps

0:00 Jennifer Groh

3:41 Sounds & Vision, Sensory Integration; Dynamic Maps

7:42 Context & Mapping; Screens, Projection & Perception, Ventriloquists

13:52 Sound Localization

16:53 Sponsors: Lingo & Wealthfront

19:50 Hearing Loss & Sound Localization, Ear Folds

21:56 Unfamiliarity of Hearing Your Own Voice; Tool: Bone Conduction Headphones

26:16 Tool: Headphone Volume & Protecting Hearing

28:57 3D Sound, Sound Distance, Thunder, Earthquakes

37:24 Sound Integration; Sound Frequency & Distance, Warning Signals

44:36 Sponsors: AGZ by AG1 & Our Place

47:39 Music, Rhythm, Community & Emotion

57:00 Music, Military; Courtship; Evolution of Music & Language

1:02:37 Ears, Visual & Auditory Integration, Sound Localization

1:09:48 Evolution of Visual & Auditory Systems, Music; Brain Controlling Vision

1:15:17 Sponsor: Helix Sleep

1:16:45 Physical Space & Sounds; Cathedrals, Sound Delay

1:22:37 Music, Emotion & Community; Science & Admitting Weakness

1:27:01 Thinking & Sensory Simulations; Forming Thoughts

1:33:18 Attention, Attractor States, Flow States, Tool: Changing Environment

1:37:38 Sounds & Environment for Focus, Attention, Tool: Mental Interval Training

1:44:37 Sponsor: LMNT

1:45:58 Endurance & Interval Mental Work; Mental Rest, Music

1:50:37 Musician, Rehearsal & Performance; Pressure

1:54:16 Chickens; Hypnotizing Chickens, Visual Attention & Focus

2:03:47 Relaxation, Phones & Schools, Boredom, Social Media

2:12:48 Acknowledgements

2:13:58 Zero-Cost Support, YouTube, Spotify & Apple Follow, Reviews & Feedback, Protocols Book, Social Media, Neural Network Newsletter

*This experience may not be representative of other Wealthfront clients, and there is no guarantee of future performance or success. Experiences will vary. The Cash Account, which is not a deposit account, is offered by Wealthfront Brokerage LLC, member FINRA/SIPC. Wealthfront Brokerage is not a bank. The base APY is 3.50% on cash deposits as of November 07, 2025, is representative, subject to change, and requires no minimum. If eligible for the overall boosted rate of 4.15% offered in connection with this promo, your boosted rate is also subject to change if the base rate decreases during the 3 month promo period. Funds in the Cash Account are swept to program banks, where it earns the variable APY. New Cash Account deposits are subject to a 2-4 day holding period before becoming available for transfer. Investment advisory services are provided by Wealthfront Advisers LLC, an SEC-registered investment adviser. Securities investments: not bank deposits, bank-guaranteed or FDIC-insured, and may lose value.

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