Emerging insights from magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) research of soccer fans show that significant victories affect brain regions that reinforce social identity and reward processing whereas defeats may lead to brain changes that impact emotional regulation.
For the prospective study, recently published in Radiology, researchers assessed functional brain MRI data for 60 healthy male soccer fans (mean age of 30) while they watched a video of 63 soccer goal sequences. These sequences included fan-rival situations that involved a participant’s team scoring against a rival, rival-fan scenarios in which a rival team scores on the participant’s team and similar scenarios involving non-rival teams, according to the study.
Employing whole-brain voxel-wise analysis, the study authors found that significant victory, defined as neural responses to scoring against archrivals, led to activation of the ventral striatum, caudate and lentiform nucleus.
“These regions are commonly linked to dopaminergic circuits involved in reinforcement learning, pleasure, and motivation,” wrote lead study author Francisco Zamorano, Ph.D., who is affiliated with the Faculty of Health Care Sciences at San Sebastian University in Santiago, Chile, and colleagues.
Significant victory also led to activation of other brain regions, such as the medial prefrontal cortex and the anterior cingulate cortex, that play a role with emotional regulation, self-referential processing and social reinforcement, according to the study authors.
The researchers found that neural responses associated with significant defeat (when an archrival scored against a study participant’s team) included the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex, the superior temporal sulcus, the orbitofrontal cortex and the inferior frontal junction.
Three Key Takeaways
• Reward and social identity activation after victory. Significant victories over rival teams triggered activation in the ventral striatum, caudate, and lentiform nucleus, regions associated with reward processing, motivation, and reinforcement learning.
• Emotional regulation response to defeat. Significant defeats were linked to activation in brain regions involved in emotional control and social perception (including the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex and orbitofrontal cortex) and deactivation of the salience network, suggesting possible suppression of emotional salience during distress.
• Neurobiological basis of fan engagement. The findings highlight that intense sports fandom engages neural circuits similar to those involved in social bonding, emotion regulation, and coping mechanisms, providing insight into how collective identity and rivalry influence emotional processing in the brain.
The study authors noted that significant defeat was also associated with deactivation of the salience network, which includes the dorsal anterior cingulate cortex (dACC).
“This network is typically involved in attention switching, emotional saliency detection, and autonomic regulation. A reduction in activity suggests that highly engaged followers may suppress salience-related processing as a coping mechanism during emotionally distressing situations,” pointed out Zamorano and colleagues.
(Editor’s note: For related content, see “MRI Study Suggests Repetitive Soccer Heading May Lead to Brain Abnormalities in ‘Locations Characteristic of CTE,’” “Imaging Shows Brains of Female Soccer Players Affected More by Heading the Ball” and “MRI Study Reveals Significant Changes in Adolescent Football Players.”)
In regard to study limitations, the authors acknowledged the relatively small size of the male-only cohort and a lack of assessment for potential confounding factors such as alcohol consumption and gambling behavior. The researchers also noted the potential for missing study-specific activations outside of canonical networks given the use of Neurosynth meta-analytic maps.
