Football fans go through ‘extreme’ brain activity during matches

Football fans experience dramatic changes in brain activity every time their team scores, wins or loses.

Scientists in Chile scanned the brains of fans watching footage of real match goals and found that emotional ups and downs in football trigger powerful neurological responses within seconds.

When a fan’s team scores, the brain’s reward and pleasure centers activate, releasing feel-good chemicals like dopamine, the same neurotransmitter linked to joy, motivation, and even addiction.

But when their opponents scored, a very different system came into play: regions involved in introspection and emotional processing helped fans rationalize the painful blow.

In the study, 60 male fans aged 20-45 from Chile’s two arch-rivals, Colo-Colo and Club Universidad de Chile, were monitored using fMRI brain scans as they watched 63 goals from their own team, their rivals and neutral clubs.

Researchers have also explored levels of fanaticism, including affiliation, passion, and even aggressive tendencies.

The more loyal the fan, the more explosive the brain’s response at important match moments.

Lead researcher Francisco Zamorano Mendieta, from Clinica Alemana de Santiago, said: “Deep team attachment influences neural activity. Significant victories activate reward networks in the brain more than victories against unrivaled teams. These networks are formed in childhood.”