A recent study has managed to come closer to shed light on this.

 

“Let us put men and women together. See which one is smarter”, goes an amusing calypso number. Whether a recent finding took a cue out of that behest, we don't know, but they sure did measure the comparative prowess between the two genders, at least when it comes to multi-tasking.

 

Arm Swing

 

To understand the differences between the two, the researchers studied something apparently very basic — the swinging of an arm. To a layman, the swinging of a human arm is a given. However, further scrutiny of this involuntary movement reveals it to be more complex. Higher centres like the cortex influences are one of the many aspects of locomotor control. Despite it being observed that the addition of a cognitive burden increases the arm swing asymmetry, clarity of the mechanisms and characteristics of this asymmetry are lacking.

 

Walk And Talk

 

Eighty-three healthy participants ranging between eighteen and eighty were recorded with infrared cameras while they walked habitually on a treadmill. The subjects were then observed when they were made to perform the congruent and incongruent Stroop activities.

 

A Stroop word-colour identifying task which involves the left cranial hemisphere should have muffled only the right arm swing. Women under 60 were surprisingly found to be resilient under test conditions.

 

Those who were between forty and fifty-nine exhibited increased arm swing asymmetry aided by a reduction in the right arm flexion, during the dual-tasking phase. The differential was even greater for those who were above sixty.

 

Same Walk Different Talk

 

The next sequence had the volunteers replace the Stroop exam with verbal language tasks while still walking on the treadmill. The outcome stated the young woman to outperform older women and all the men in all the experiments. It was quite telling for men of all ages and for women above sixty the way their symmetry broke down, with a reduced right arm swing while the left arm maintained its swing normally.

 

Women Smarter?

 

The language centre and the right arm is controlled by the left side of the brain.

It seems that when it came to men and older women, the language task seemed to overwhelm the left brain enough to affect the reduction of the right arm swing.

 

Admittedly, more work needs to be done, but the results were pretty concluding in pointing out that women may have an evolved neurological advantage in the matters of juggling tasks.

 

Now you know why one version of that song ended in, “women..... Smarter than the man in every way / Oh yes, smarter.”