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
I think more men get into serious accidents. Because their accidents usually involve being loaded on drugs and alcohol and deciding its a good idea to race a train.
Women get accidents because they were too busy applying make up or they decide that their going to fast for a sharp turn in the middle of a rainstorm and slam on the breaks to correct themselves.
>>Professor Rex Jung is in trouble now.<<
He should know his statements won't be respected unless he either:
1. Calls for massive federal grants to subsidize federal map-folding assistance centers, operated of course by Planned Parenthood.
or
2. Calls for the prohibition of paper maps, thus ending the horrors of medieval, patristic navigation techniques.
Were you the passenger? Because that would have been hilarious if you just let her drive and drive.. When did she figure out she was miles off course?
There are some things in this world that the Good Lord never intended that Man should understand.
This is one of 'em.
Quietly accept that fact and you'll live a much happier life.
I agree. I'm sure I must have gotten some teaching somewhere on maps, although I don't remember it specifically. Reading a map just seems logical to me. And if you see something there you don't understand, you find out what it means.
No,
but congratulations.
Well, it does explain why they talk so much.
Yes, but we have the much coveted "mute button" in our brains. When my wife babbles on all I here is "blah blah, blah blah, blah, blah, did you hear a word I said"? to which I reply, NO!
My sister-in-law was at my house in Long Beach, California and wanted to go to Santa Anita Race track in Arcadia, but was not sure how to get there. I tried to show her on a map.
After some discussion and confusion on her part, she decided to drive home to her house (in Hollywood) and then go to the track because:
"It will easier that way. I know how to get to Santa Anita from my house."
If you look at a map of the LA basin, and locate these cities, you will see how ridiculous this was.
No like most things just look at the center Bell Curve for just about any activity. Some will be poor (left) some will be average (middle) some, like you will be good at a given task(right). The center line will vary on many tasks between the sexes and yes in some cases between races (oh no, here come the PC police).
Math, music, and language decoding all use the same areas of the brain. She's not talking about "communicating" or being a talker, it's a different skill that makes language acquisition and decoding easier. It's why older kids and adults have a hard time becoming competent, let alone fluent, in new languages. And also why great mathematicians and great composers often make their best contributions in youth.
That said, I have excellent map reading skills (hunt, fish, etc.) but see no point in trying to redirect my husband's erratic dead-reckoning.
My daughter is always amazed that I don't need a compass to tell which direction our car is travelling. She likes to reach up and put her had over the compass on our rear view mirror and ask me which direction we're travelling. I keep telling her, if you can see the Sun or the Moon or the stars, and you know about what time it is, you can know which direction you are travelling.
I'm right 90% of the time, which drives her nuts. :) Oh, and for the record, I was born with X and Y chromosomes, which is my personal legal definition of sexuality. :)
But you need to be sure that you're reading an accurate map. And if there's construction, all bets are off.
Normally, I'll hit AAA for a map before I go traveling, but this one time I had to get out to Wichita, there just wasn't time. I swear that I'll never use "Yahoo Maps" again. They actually had incorrect exits on their maps! They listed one exit that doesn't exist.
Of course, I didn't stop... Just used the cell phone to call the hotel for directions.
Mark
Not my husband! I've known how to read maps since I was about 12 years old. I can find my way to just about anywhere...probably around the world and back. HOWEVER, my very intelligent DH doesn't care one iota about reading a map...he's never been one to have a great sense of direction and has always deferred that to me, since I was better at it than he.
Important scientific observation:
This study would have been greatly enhanced had 2nd Lieutenants been used as a control group.
I tend to agree with that. We women (not all!), tend to think and speak more in detail when detail isn't always needed. I'm guilty of it and often catch myself doing it. I do have one male friend that is worse than me though, but he's gay.
That's because it IS!
Harvard President Summers would do much better using scientific studies such as this to support his recent controversial statements, rather than groveling in futile contrite apologies to outraged! feminists.
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