A beautiful scene evokes a different response in men鈥檚 brains than in women鈥檚. The difference may result from different evolutionary pressures on the two sexes in our hunter-gatherer ancestors.
A team led by of the Balearic University in Palma de Mallorca, Spain, showed photographs of natural and urban scenes to 10 male and 10 female volunteers, and asked them to classify each scene as beautiful or not beautiful.
As each volunteer did so, the researchers measured the electrical activity of their brains using a technique known as magnetoencephalography. Then they looked to see which parts of the brain were active only for scenes rated as beautiful 鈥� in other words, what 鈥渂eauty鈥� looks like in the brain.
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Both men and women showed increased activity in the parietal region, near the top of the brain, in response to beautiful scenes.
In women, this increased activity occurred in both hemispheres of the brain, while in men it was restricted mainly to the right hemisphere.
Mental maps
The researchers suggest that this distinction may reflect differences between the sexes in the way they process landscape imagery.
In early humans, men tended to be hunters and thus developed mental maps based on distance and direction, while women tended to gather plant foods and thus oriented themselves by means of landmarks, they argue.
This fits with existing evidence that the left hemisphere handles 鈥渃ategorical鈥� spatial relations such as landmarks, while the right handles 鈥渃oordinate鈥� spatial relations like distance and direction.
The researchers hope to go on to study whether these brain differences affect men鈥檚 and women鈥檚 decisions about whether a scene is beautiful.
Journal reference: , (in press)
