The neuroscience of the sports fanatic: MRI scans peek inside the minds of soccer fans - revealing where winning and losing lives in the brain

Sports fans know that watching their team win releases a feeling of joy, but seeing them lose has the opposite effect - and these'feelings' can be seen in our brains. Researchers at the Clínica Alemana de Santiago in Chile scanned soccer fans' brains, finding the sight of their team scoring lit up the region associated with reward. When their team lost, a network of brain areas involved in mentalization became more active - signaling that they were trying to make sense of what just happened. In other words, we feel good when we watch our team score. And when we see our team's rivals score on them, we attempt to rationalize.