Men and women reach differently. Scientists have found that we use our brain differently when we need to perform hand-eye-coordination; Women use both sides of their brain while men use only the left. Unless the task is complex, then men too use both sides. While this may support the theory that men easier do hand-eye-coordination, it’s really bad news for us. You see, if a stroke hits our left brain we may need longer rehabilitation than woman, in order to do coordination tasks like (sigh) driving a car.

�We found that in females there were three major brain areas involved in visually-guided movement and they showed activity on both sides of the brain in most of the exercises in the study,� says Sergio. �In contrast, male brains lit up on both sides only for the most complex exercise.�

The differences between the sexes were so clear that Gorbet first noticed them while doing an earlier study that was not designed to separate out male and female results, said Sergio.

�In the type of eye-hand coordination research we do, we know there are differences between males and females when it comes to visual spatial processing � how you mentally rotate an object,� she said. �But nobody has ever looked at action, at real-world relevant type of movement, which is what we�re doing. We�re studying eye-hand coordination when what the visual system is seeing is dissociated from what the hand is doing.�

Typically, when a person uses his or her right hand to do something, an area or areas on the left side of the brain show activity. However, Sergio and Gorbet observed that in females, areas in both sides of the brain were lighting up during these eye-hand coordination experiments. That occurred in men only when they were planning their most complex task, in an experiment in which the joystick was adjusted to move the cursor in the opposite direction to the one expected.

The research findings suggest that if someone has a stroke on one side of the brain, in one of the areas that differs between males and females, it may be important to take into account the sex of the patient.

�If the stroke is only on one side of the brain, a woman may have rehabilitation options that the man may have more trouble with,� said Sergio, �because the woman may be able to perform tasks using the other side of her brain, which is used to being fired up. We also need to recognize that men may have more trouble with rehabilitation, and may need to be checked more carefully before they resume everyday activities such as driving.�

Source: Science Daily - Male And Female Brain Patterns Differ During Reaching