…and it may depend on the inner ear. “…[T]here are well-documented differences in how men and women get from Point A to Point B — perhaps giving a scientific root to timeworn jokes about women being batty drivers and men never admitting (though committing) error. Studies over the past decade have shown that women are likelier to rely on landmarks and visual cues, and men on maps, cardinal directions (such as north and south) and gauges of distance.

“Women are more dependent on a surrounding frame,” says Luc Tremblay, an assistant professor of physical education and health at the University of Toronto, who has led studies on the matter. If landmarks change, women are more apt to notice and question their sense of orientation. “Men are capable of relying on another source of information alone,” Tremblay says.

While some scientists theorize that hormones account for navigational differences between the sexes, Tremblay thinks the answer may lie in the inner ear. There, a group of three semicircular canals — which are usually larger in men than in women — help track the body’s motion, speed and direction. Men, in other words, get stronger internal directional cues, Tremblay speculates.” (Washington Post)