New study’s findings explain why women are likelier than men to
see the grass as greener—literally. [© Prezent - Fotolia.com]
Men and women see things differently, and not just when it comes
to asking for directions. Women can differentiate between colors
more finely, while men show more sensitivity to fine detail and
rapidly moving objects, say researchers. Why the gender
difference on vision? The reason, researchers say, rests in
differences between the visual centers of each gender. Men have
25% higher levels than women of testosterone receptors in their
visual cortexes, where images are processed. As a result, their
visual systems are better able than those of women to perceive
changes in brightness across space, such as recognizing faces or
reading letters from an eye chart. Women, however, are better
than men in distinguishing colors in the middle of the visual
spectrum, such as shades of blue and green. That’s because color
vision depends on three types of cones, two of which are carried
on the X-chrom