Gay men navigate in a similar fashion to women, according to research that offers fresh evidence for a heavy biological influence over sexual orientation.

Homosexual men and heterosexual women share a poor sense of direction compared with heterosexual men, and are more likely to rely on landmarks, scientists have found. The results, from a study, at Queen Mary, University of London, and published in the journal Hippocampus, build on previous research that has identified differences in spatial reasoning related to sex and sexual orientation. They add to the evidence that sexual preference is affected by biological factors that shape brain anatomy and chemistry.

Qazi Rahman and Johanna Koerting recruited 140 volunteers to take part in computerised spatial learning tests. In a “maze” test, straight men started quickly and maintained their advantage. Gay men did similarly to women, navigating by landmark rather than direction. “This might mean that sexual orientation affects the speed at which you acquire spatial information, but not necessarily your eventual memory for that information,” Dr Rahman said.

“We are interested in whether heterosexual men are using a unique strategy from their first attempt at traversing a new environment, which accounts for why they are so quick off the mark.”

In another test, the performance of gay men was more like that of heterosexual men than of women. “This suggests that sexual variation in spatial cognition is not straightforward.”

Dr Rahman added: “Driving in a novel environment, which is poor in cues, is where these differences are likely to show up most. Women are going to take a lot longer to reach their destination, making more errors, taking wrong turns etc. They need more rich local landmarks. Men are good at using distal or geometrical cues to decide if they are going north or south, for instance. They have a better basic sense of direction, but they can use local landmarks as well.”

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