As a Chicagoan, I am often stopped by tourists for directions to the Art Institute or to the nearest Starbucks. I know where all of these hotspots are and I could walk these lost tourists there myself (they rarely take me up on my offer); however I am horrible at giving directions in the manner that people usually want. Looking for a human-GoogleMaps filled with street names and mileage? I’m not really your gal. But a scavenger hunt-esque list of landmarks to look for on your adventure to guide the way? No problem! Despite different perceptions, all can appreciate the artistry in this multicolored brain.

I hate these moments when I have to walk away from a group of hopeless tourists knowing I have reinforced the age-old idea of women not having a clue when it comes to directions. No woman wants to be responsible for perpetuating negative stereotypes of her entire womankind.

However, after reading the RedEye while riding the el to work one morning, I found that this stereotype is in fact, true. Well, not that women are terrible with directions necessarily, but that men and women observe their surroundings differently, engaging different parts and amounts of the brain when taking note of the space around them or even when looking at a piece of art.

In a recent publication from the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, studies show that men and women perceive their surroundings and interpret beauty in different ways. Using magnetoencephalography (a really fancy word to describe an imaging technique that measures the magnetic fields produced by electrical activity in the brain) a group of scientists recorded the brain activity of 10 women and 10 men while they “decided whether or not they considered examples of artistic and natural visual stimuli to be beautiful” (http://www.pnas.org/content/early/2009/02/20/0900304106.abstract).

Results show that male participants’ brain activity differed greatly from that of female participants when designating beauty. Both sexes utilized the parietal lobe, the part of the brain primarily associated with determining spatial sense and navigation. However, women’s activity was bilateral, meaning they used both the left and right sides of their parietal lobe, while men’s lateralized activity only used the right side.

Both men and women start off seeing the larger picture. But when women’s left parietal lobe kicks in, they start to apply meaning, particularly linguistic, to their surroundings, taking note of details and how they relate to one another. Men stick to the right side of things and use a more “precise mode of mental mapping.”

Researchers argue that these differing perceptions of surroundings/beauty were bred in men and women due to evolutionary factors. Back in the day of hunting and gathering, the division of labor also divided the sexes. Men were responsible for the hunt, demanding a skilled sense of direction and distance while women gathered berries and plants, activating their ability to define landmarks in relation to one another.

After patting myself on the back for using both sides of my brain, the (very small) radical feminist part of me wanted to shout, “There you have it! Women use more of their brain than men, thus they are both more intellectual and more able to appreciate beauty around them! Stereotype REFUTED!”

Not quite.

Each perception of beauty and surroundings serve a certain purpose. If you are looking to get from Sears Tower to Millennium Park as directly as possible, according to this study, a man is your go-to. If you’re looking to experience the journey and learn about the origin of the Buckingham Fountain or the inspiration behind the design of the Art Institute along the way, you’re better off asking a woman.

Each one serves its own specific and valuable purpose. How’s that for equality?