Posted on 01/24/2005 9:01:14 AM PST by Rodney King
MEN frequently despair at women's map-reading skills - or rather their lack of them. Now scientists believe they have pinpointed the reason for this conflict between the sexes.
Researchers say it is all down to differences in the reliance of the sexes on either grey matter or white matter in their brains to solve problems. They found that in intelligence tests men use 6.5 times as much grey matter as women, but women use nine times as much white matter.
Grey matter is brain tissue crucial to processing information and plays a vital role in aiding skills such as mathematics, map-reading and intellectual thought.
White matter connects the brain's processing centres and is central to emotional thinking, use of language and the ability to do more than one thing at once.
Professor Rex Jung, a co-author of the study at the University of New Mexico, said: "This may help explain why men tend to excel in tasks requiring more local processing, like mathematics and map-reading, while women tend to excel at integrating information from various brain regions, such as is required for language skills.
"These two very different pathways and activity centres, however, result in equivalent overall performance on broad measures of cognitive ability, such as those found on intelligence tests."
Previous studies have shown that women have weaker spatial awareness than men, making it harder for them to read maps.
Research has also found that in childhood, girls' vocabulary develops more quickly and that in later life women can speak 20,000 to 25,000 words a day compared to a man's 7000 to 10,000.
For the study, published in the online edition of the journal NeuroImage, researchers performed a series of brain scans on 26 female and 22 male volunteers using magnetic resonance imaging equipment.
All the volunteers were in good health, had no history of brain injury and the average IQ scores of the two sexes were similar.
Their brains were scanned while they carried out tests designed to assess their general intelligence.
Researchers then created a map of a brain showing the varying levels of activity in the brains of men and women. About 40 per cent of the human brain is grey matter and 60 per cent white matter
Exactly!! Once I have a clear picture in my mind where I'm going, I can find my way with no problems.
My wife would have hit Wausau before she realized she was going the wrong way.
We have a running joke that whatever her instincts tell her when driving, do the opposite.
Well, I am glad you weren't offended. I re-read my post, and it came across a little snarky to me. LOL!
Have a good one.
Turn Left at the Walmart right at the Mc Donalds then go
down the road 2 blocks then when you pass the house with the beautiful house with the white roses I am on the left side...These are my directions....
In my experience with maps, I find that men will read maps incorrectly sometimes and then refuse to acknowledge their error. But men like maps, like the idea of having maps. Women don't care if they have maps or not. In general, but not necessarily in all cases.
down, boy, down -- are you trying to pick a fight with all the lovely ladies that consider themselves dedicated Freepers?
Does this apply to giving driving directions? For instance I don't know street names and go by landmarks.
Okay, you try to use an ATM without screwing up your manicure, and then let's see you complain. :^P
I had a wife like that ... once.
"Finally - why women can't read maps "
C'mon...they can read/use maps just as well as men.
They just want to take a break during travel and socialize with the locals....
LOL Oh, it doesn't bother him. In fact, I'm sure that he appreciates it. He just doesn't know it yet. ;-)
"I don't believe they THINK differently."
There are no absolutes here. I left some room for individual differences. Years ago I studied logic. I later learned that there is a separate branch called Woman Logic. Most of us have known women who solve problems through a learned or ingrained thought process which is not "logical" but which is unquestionably effective.
I don't mean this as a criticism or a put down. I am only pointing out something that I see as a difference.
Three good quotes for this thread...
"No matter where you go, there you are..."
"We may be lost, but we're making good time!"
"I'm not lost! I'm right here!"
Mark
My wife would have hit Wausau before she realized she was going the wrong way.
Years ago, I had to go on a day trip for business with my boss, from Kansas City to Omaha, NE. We left at 6:00am, and while he had a few meetings, I was working on computers all day. By about 6:00pm, I was finished, but just wiped out. Since he was driving, I figured that I'd take a nap. Well, something woke me up, and as I was looking around, I noticed that the sun was setting on the left side of the car... I asked, "Dave, where the hell are you going?" He said, where do you think, dumb-s**t, I going home. I asked him when the sun started setting in the east. At that poing we passed a sign stating that we were about 30 miles from Sioux City, IA!.
Yup, he had driven about 60 miles north!
Mark
in later life women can speak 20,000 to 25,000 words a day compared to a man's 7000 to 10,000.
So a man can say in 7,000 words what it takes a woman 20,000
to say.
Shocking! Of course half of those 20,000 words are probably
color discriptions like Taupe, or off robins egg blue, or
mauve.
One should never confuse map reading skills with navigational skills. The article claims that "women tend to excel at integrating information from various brain regions", yet fails to explain how even with this key navigational skill, they still are less proficient than men at navigation.
--Boot Hill
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