It's a truth universally acknowledged that women tend to be better at multitasking than men, and now science has finally revealed why...
It looks like our brains are quite simply wired differently, according to a new study. The research by HSE Neurolinguistics Laboratory shows that men require more energy and more parts of their brain than women to switch their attention from one task to another.
While both sexes have to activate multiple areas of their brain when moving from one activity to another, female brains seem to require less effort to make that jump. As a result, it looks like men are simply slower at multitasking than women.
We knew it!
'We know that stronger activation and involvement of supplementary areas of the brain are normally observed in subjects faced with complex tasks,' lead author Svetlana Kuptsova told the Daily Mail. 'Our findings suggest that women might find it easier than men to switch attention and their brains do not need to mobilise extra resources in doing so, as opposed to male brains.'
During the experiment, healthy men and women were asked to complete a variety of tasks, while their brains were monitored using MRI scans. The study revealed that the difference between the sexes was most pronounced in younger men and women, with the gap evening out as we get older and women's brain power naturally slows, too.
So, there you have it ladies, it seems like we're the fairer AND the more efficient sex, scientifically...
More from Prima.co.uk
Get your fix of all things Prima with our twice-weekly newsletter — sign up below!