The female hormone oestrogen could give women the edge when it comes to tasks such as safe driving, say researchers. Tests showed attention span and ability to learn rules were far better among women than men. The Bradford University scientists told a hormone conference in London how tasks requiring mental flexibility favour women over men. A woman’s oestrogen levels may prime the part of the brain involved in such skills - the frontal lobe - they said. They asked 43 men and women aged 18-35 to perform a battery of neuropsychological tests that assessed skills such as spatial recognition memory, rule learning, attention, planning and motor control. The women were far better at being able to shift their attention from one stimulus to another, making it easier for them to perform everyday actions like driving and reading. This might explain why girls find it easier than boys to concentrate at school and why women are more careful drivers, the researchers hypothesise. Speaking at the Society for Endocrinology meeting, they said: “This study demonstrates that tasks requiring mental flexibility favour women over men, an area previously not considered to elicit strong sex differences.
