Females as good as males with directions Scientists studying
rats have found both male and female newborns have an innate
sense of direction before they've even begun to move around, and
this is likely to be the same for all animals - including
humans. The researchers found no difference in directional sense
between male and females, suggesting both sexes are born with
have the same tools on which to build navigational skills.
"Perhaps the age-old question of whether males or females have a
better sense of direction could be a case of how we choose to
build our map, rather than the materials we start with," write
scientists in report on their study, which was published in the
journal Science. The team of researchers from Britain and Norway
implanted miniature sensors in rat pups before their eyes had
opened and before they had started to move about. This technique
allowed the researchers to record neural activity when the rat
pups left the nest for the first time to explore a new
environment. They found that