Men DO have a better sense of direction - study

Men and women utilise different strategies when it comes to navigation. Photo / Getty

For a lot of men, the notion that they have a better sense of direction than women was already a fact, now a scientific study proves it.

Researchers from the Norwegian University of Science and Technology conducted a study where volunteers completed a series of navigation based tasks with brain scans taken in the process.

The results show men have a more adept sense of direction because they use a separate part of their brain to find their way.

It was also found when women in the study had a dose of testosterone dropped onto their tongue, their navigational skills improved.

In an MRI scanner, participants were given 30 seconds for each of the 45 navigational tasks which included completing challenges such as finding a car from different starting points.

Men solved 50 per cent more of the tasks than women.

According to the lead researcher Dr Carl Pintzka, men and women have different strategies when it comes to navigation.

Men tend to use north, south, east and west - during navigation to a greater degree. says Dr Pintzka.

"Men's sense of direction was more effective. They quite simply got to their destination faster," he said.

"If they're going to the Student Society building in Trondheim, for example, men usually go in the general direction where it's located.

"Women usually orient themselves along a route to get there, for example, 'go past the hairdresser and then up the street and turn right after the store'."

The study shows using cardinal directions - north, south, east and west - is more efficient because it's a more flexible strategy.

And destinations are reached faster because the strategy is less dependent on the starting point.

Brain images showed while men and women use large areas of the brain for navigation, men used the hippocampus more, whereas women used their frontal areas to a greater extent.

In evolutionary terms, Dr Pintzka said because men were hunters and women were gatherers, "our brains probably evolved differently".

"For instance, other researchers have documented that women are better at finding objects locally than men. In simple terms, women are faster at finding things in the house, and men are faster at finding the house."

- nzherald.co.nz