Gender and direction
among the most common activities performed by humans is going to a familiar place to carry out a routine, daily task. For example, we may need to chart out a fairly complex path each day from our home to the bus stop, but we do so without thinking about it. The reason is that the brain is highly accomplished at navigation: of processing and analysing the steps required to be taken, and the movements required to be made, for the body to get from one place to another to a third. All of this needs primarily an integration of visual stimuli: by knowing where you are, you can decide where you need to go to next.
The process goes by the name of visuospatial cognition. Of course, the same sort of navigational ability may be needed in unfamiliar surroundings too. You may be in a new city and need to get around, or you may even be trapped and want to escape. Astonishingly, it seems that the brains of men and women carry out the tasks necessary for visuospatial cognition in slightly different ways. The latest piece of evidence comes from a study by Georg Gr
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