Revisited: An inside look at the Brains of Sports Fans

Revisited: An inside look at the Brains of Sports Fans

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Sports fans brained, they are different, and jel you always
knew you're a little different, right.

Speaker 2 (00:06):
I mean, yeah, but I didn't realize not in this context.

Speaker 1 (00:10):
Okay, So think about what goes through your mind in
a moment like this, like with the clincher for the
Panthers recently, A lot of excitement, right.

Speaker 2 (00:26):
Boy, Those Panthers fans, those hockey fans are lucky. Why
can't I feel that when I'm watching the Dolphins? Goes
through my mind?

Speaker 1 (00:33):
When it was the last time you were that excited
about the Dolphins?

Speaker 2 (00:35):
Gosh, what's the story about.

Speaker 1 (00:36):
So it is safe to say that the Florida Panthers
back to back championships created new generations of hockey fans
in South Florida, the Panthers' first professional South Florida sports
franchise to win a title since Miami Heat in twenty thirteen,
and they also created a really neat bit of history
in the process. I discover this unintentionally. Something dawned on

(00:57):
me while researching for this story, and and I was like,
hold on, I don't know that there has ever been
a metro that has had back to back titles in
three different sports, three different major sports. South Florida is
the only metro with teams that have won back to
back championships in three different major professional sports. Of course,

(01:20):
the Panthers have done it now, the Miami Heat in
twenty twelve and thirteen, the Miami Dolphins seventy two and seventy.

Speaker 2 (01:27):
Three, and at this rate the way the Dolphins are going,
the Marlins will be next to do it before the
Dolphins ever have a shot. Yikes.

Speaker 1 (01:34):
But that's not the impetus behind this story, because whether
you're a diehard sports fan or ambivalent about sports, if
you've ever wondered why that is, a recent study published
in Scientific Reports might have the answer, and it's that
sports fans brains are different. Are actually, more accurately stated,
what happens in the brain of a sports fan when

(01:55):
watching a game is different. Without getting into a bunch
of scientific speak, the bottom line is there, when you
have somebody who's particularly passionate about sports and when they're
watching what they're watching, they process it primarily through the
prefrontal cortex of their brain, that is the portion of
the brain where we assign meaning to things. Casual sports

(02:18):
fans different patterns of brain activity didn't really run through there,
and so that's why it might be entertaining at a
certain level to them, but you know, I can't take
it or leave it. And then with people that are
not sports fans, just not happening there at all. And
one of the things you might be able to infer
is independent even of sports, when you are particularly passionate
about something, no matter what it is, that is what's

(02:40):
likely going on. It's the portion of your brain where
you're processing stuff.

Speaker 2 (02:45):
So I need to get rid of that portion of
my brain or I just need to find a new
sports team. Wow. That's why I was following the Panthers side.
I want to keep my brain intact, or what's left
of it. Wow. All right,