Functional neural substrates of football fanaticism: Different pattern of brain responses and connectivity in fanatics (original) (raw)

2020, Psychiatry and Clinical Neurosciences

AimSports activities provide social interaction for humans. Commitment to a given team is a salient feature of being a sports fan and becomes a prominent part of self‐identification for fanatics. Emotion, subjective hedonic experience, and non‐romantic love are related to fan behaviors. Few studies have evaluated the neural basis of sports fanaticism.MethodsThirty men, including 16 football fanatics and 14 non‐fanatics, with a mean age of 27.4 ± 6.4 years (range, 20–48 years) were enrolled. Subjects underwent functional MRI while watching a set of goals scored by favorite, rival, and neutral teams.ResultsThe analysis of variance in a general linear model revealed a significant Group × Condition interaction effect in the bilateral dorsal anterior cingulate cortex (dACC) that was more prominent in the left hemisphere. In the post‐hoc comparisons, fanatics showed increased activation in bilateral dACC, supplementary motor area, superior frontal cortex, right dorsolateral prefrontal cor...