http://www.newscientist.com/article.ns?id=dn7069

Gay men read maps like women
18:32 25 February 2005
NewScientist.com news service

Gay men employ the same strategies for navigating as
women - using landmarks to find their way around - a
new study suggests.

But they also use the strategies typically used by
straight men, such as using compass directions and
distances. In contrast, gay women read maps just like
straight women, reveals the study of 80 heterosexual
and homosexual men and women.

"Gay men adopt male and female strategies. Therefore
their brains are a sexual mosaic," explains Qazi Rahman,
a psychobiologist who led the study at the University
of East London, UK. "It's not simply that lesbians have
men's brains and gay men have women's brains."

The stereotype that women are relatively poor map readers
is borne out by a reasonable bulk of scientific literature,
notes Rahman. "Men, particularly, excel at spatial
navigation."

The new study might help researchers understand how
cognitive differences and sexual orientation develop
in the womb, he says.
....



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