Rob Roy MacGregor
March 21st, 2004, 02:48 PM
http://webcenter.health.webmd.netscape.com/content/article/22/1728_55865.htm?DEST=WebMD_contentSRC_nsmain
Lost in a strange city without a map? Let daddy drive. According to a new study in the journal Nature Neuroscience, men stuck in a maze use their brains more effectively than women -- and are faster at finding a way out.
A German research team put men and women into a brain-imaging device and gave them a video game to play. Wearing virtual-reality goggles that put them into a 3-D maze, participants had to find their way out using a three-button control pad. Men won hands-down: They found their way through the maze almost a minute faster than the women, in 142 seconds vs. 196 seconds.
"It's really a biological difference," study author Matthias W. Riepe, PhD, tells WebMD. "If you go back to [previous] animal studies, the results are very much the same."
The men apparently beat the women by using their brains better. The brain scans showed that men used much more of a part of the brain that interprets geometric clues. Women used only part of this brain region, and, unlike the men, also used other parts of the right side of their brains. Riepe suggests that their strategy for exploring the maze was to look for landmarks, whereas men used both landmarks and geometric clues.
"While moving around in a labyrinth, men can process information about angles and shapes," says Riepe, a neurologist at the University of Ulm in Germany. "The men have much more information to process, but in doing so, they are doing better."
The average age of the study participants was 26. Susan C. Levine, PhD, professor of psychology at the University of Chicago, tells WebMD that there may be a simple explanation for the study findings: The men may have played a lot more video games than the women. Even though the study allowed a practice period for all of the participants to gain experience, it might not overcome this gap.
"One of the biggest sex differences is that if you go into video arcades, you see almost all men," says Levine, who was not involved in the study. "There is not any experience an investigator could give that would make up for that difference. Of course, boys may be more attracted to video games because they are better at spatial tasks."
This edge in experience could explain why the men's brains worked differently than the women's. John P. Kline, PhD, an expert in brain and emotion who reviewed the study for WebMD, says that if men enjoyed the maze more than women, their brains would have acted differently. "It's not too far a stretch of the imagination to say that men found the task more interesting and engaging, and became more involved," says Kline, assistant professor of psychology at Florida State University.
Riepe, however, points to animal studies that back up his findings. As in humans, male rats find their way through certain types of mazes better than female rats. When the same part of the brain used by the men in the study is cut away from the rest of the brain in male rats, they do worse than female rats. The same operation has no effect on the ability of female rats to find their way through the maze. When researchers inactivate the same part of the rat brain used by the human women during navigation, female rats lose their ability to find their way out of the maze but male rats aren't affected.
"If you are exposed to work in real-life situations this would come close to, men would perform better than women," Riepe speculates. "An example might be driving when finding the way in a strange city."
Is this the reason men don't like to ask directions? "These are not the brain areas involved in asking for directions," Riepe says. "I think this is something completely different."
"The other thing is that a lot of men don't ask questions and get lost anyway," Levine adds.
There appears to be a practical application to the study: Riepe and colleagues plan to use similar methods for early detection of abnormal brain functions. They plan to announce their first results soon.
Lost in a strange city without a map? Let daddy drive. According to a new study in the journal Nature Neuroscience, men stuck in a maze use their brains more effectively than women -- and are faster at finding a way out.
A German research team put men and women into a brain-imaging device and gave them a video game to play. Wearing virtual-reality goggles that put them into a 3-D maze, participants had to find their way out using a three-button control pad. Men won hands-down: They found their way through the maze almost a minute faster than the women, in 142 seconds vs. 196 seconds.
"It's really a biological difference," study author Matthias W. Riepe, PhD, tells WebMD. "If you go back to [previous] animal studies, the results are very much the same."
The men apparently beat the women by using their brains better. The brain scans showed that men used much more of a part of the brain that interprets geometric clues. Women used only part of this brain region, and, unlike the men, also used other parts of the right side of their brains. Riepe suggests that their strategy for exploring the maze was to look for landmarks, whereas men used both landmarks and geometric clues.
"While moving around in a labyrinth, men can process information about angles and shapes," says Riepe, a neurologist at the University of Ulm in Germany. "The men have much more information to process, but in doing so, they are doing better."
The average age of the study participants was 26. Susan C. Levine, PhD, professor of psychology at the University of Chicago, tells WebMD that there may be a simple explanation for the study findings: The men may have played a lot more video games than the women. Even though the study allowed a practice period for all of the participants to gain experience, it might not overcome this gap.
"One of the biggest sex differences is that if you go into video arcades, you see almost all men," says Levine, who was not involved in the study. "There is not any experience an investigator could give that would make up for that difference. Of course, boys may be more attracted to video games because they are better at spatial tasks."
This edge in experience could explain why the men's brains worked differently than the women's. John P. Kline, PhD, an expert in brain and emotion who reviewed the study for WebMD, says that if men enjoyed the maze more than women, their brains would have acted differently. "It's not too far a stretch of the imagination to say that men found the task more interesting and engaging, and became more involved," says Kline, assistant professor of psychology at Florida State University.
Riepe, however, points to animal studies that back up his findings. As in humans, male rats find their way through certain types of mazes better than female rats. When the same part of the brain used by the men in the study is cut away from the rest of the brain in male rats, they do worse than female rats. The same operation has no effect on the ability of female rats to find their way through the maze. When researchers inactivate the same part of the rat brain used by the human women during navigation, female rats lose their ability to find their way out of the maze but male rats aren't affected.
"If you are exposed to work in real-life situations this would come close to, men would perform better than women," Riepe speculates. "An example might be driving when finding the way in a strange city."
Is this the reason men don't like to ask directions? "These are not the brain areas involved in asking for directions," Riepe says. "I think this is something completely different."
"The other thing is that a lot of men don't ask questions and get lost anyway," Levine adds.
There appears to be a practical application to the study: Riepe and colleagues plan to use similar methods for early detection of abnormal brain functions. They plan to announce their first results soon.