Published on November 7, 2005 at 4:06 PM
According to British scientists studying brain differences between the sexes, female sex hormones may be responsible for making women better "multi-taskers" and safer drivers than men.
In a report, released at the annual meeting of the Society for Endocrinology in London, it has been revealed that a woman's attention span in cognitive tests was "far higher" than that of a man.
This revelation has led the researchers at the University of Bradford to believe that women have a greater ability to shift attention from one stimulus to another, and could adapt more rapidly to changing rules.
The discovery confirms previous research which has shown sharp improvements in certain mental tasks when oestrogen levels peak.
According to researcher Amarylis Fox, it could be hypothesised that being able to switch attention between different things while driving is obviously going to help, and is especially the case when driving on a motorway, which can be very dull.
http://www.endocrinology.org/