But do they stop to ask for directions?

Sex And Prenatal Hormone Exposure Affect Cognitive Performance:

Yerkes researchers are using their findings to better understand sex differences in cognitive performance, which may lead to increased understanding of the difference in neuropsychological disorders men and women experience.

In one of the first research studies to assess sex differences in cognitive performance in nonhuman primates, researchers at the Yerkes National Primate Research Center have found the tendency to use landmarks for navigation is typical only of females.

This finding, which corroborates findings in rodents and humans and is available in the online edition of Hormones and Behavior, suggests there is not just a difference in how well females and males solve spatial problems, but also in which types of cues they use to solve such problems. Researchers are applying this knowledge to gain a better understanding of how the brain develops and functions.

Categories

More like this

Keeping to my week long theme of gender differences in cognition (here and here), here is an article by Diane Halpern in eSkeptic. It not only summarizes a lot of what is known about gender differences (even though it is reprinted from 1993) but also goes into confounding factors like prenatal…
It should not come as a surprise to the regular reader of this blog that a lot can be learned about animal cognition by simply observing animal behavior. But can observing animal behavior lead the observer to make inferences about brain anatomy? Can observing animal behavior tell us something about…
Welcome to the second installment of Animal Territoriality Week. Today, we'll look at a case where differences in territory size can have implications for neuroanatomy. If you missed part 1 of Animal Territoriality week, check it out here. Let's say you have two very very closely related species.…
I was at a wedding this weekend, and I was getting in one of those conversations that drunk people get into at weddings: what are the gender differences in cognition? OK, so maybe you don't get into conversations like this with people you don't know well, but I do. Anyway, it got me thinking…

Machismo? "Honey, trust me! I know what I'm doing. I'll get us there...eventually..."

Jokes aside, I am assuming that they may use celestial navigation combined with cognitive maps. I'll have to look at the actual paper once I find some time...and a map to find it.

Very interesting!

-Vishvas Vasuki

By Vishvas Vasuki (not verified) on 16 Apr 2007 #permalink