Washington D.C, Dec 7 : Stereotypes are usually baseless, but a recent study has verified one generalization that we encounter in our daily lives: men tend to be better navigators than women.
Researchers at the Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU) decided to explore this idea by administering testosterone to women and testing how they performed in way finding tasks in a virtual environment.
Using fMRI, the researchers saw that men in the study took several shortcuts, oriented themselves more using cardinal directions and used a different part of the brain than the women in the study.
But when women got a drop of testosterone under their tongue, several of them were able to orient themselves better in the four cardinal directions.
“Men’s sense of direction was more effective. They quite simply got to their destination faster,” says researcher Carl Pintzka.
The directional sense findings are part of his doctoral thesis on how the brain functions differently in men and women.
He hopes that by understanding how men and women use different brain areas and strategies to navigate, researchers will be able to enhance the understanding of the disease’s development, and develop coping strategies for those already affected
The study appears in Behavioral Brain Research. (ANI)