Understanding the sport viewership experience using functional near-infrared spectroscopy

Area of Science:

• Neuroscience
• Sports Psychology
• Cognitive Science

Background:

• Assessing real-time sports event evaluation typically relies on self-report measures.
• Neural indices offer novel insights into the evaluative processing of sporting events.
• Viewer's emotional investment and critical game moments influence neural activity.

Purpose of the Study:

• To investigate neural activations in the prefrontal cortex during sports viewing.
• To examine the relationship between ego involvement and neural responses to key game moments.
• To explore the utility of neural indices in understanding viewer engagement in sports.

Main Methods:

• Functional near-infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS) was used to measure brain activity.
• Participants (n=20) were categorized into high (n=11) and low (n=9) ego-involved groups based on pre-screening.
• Participants viewed video clips of key moments from an ice hockey game.

Main Results:

• High ego-involved participants exhibited increased dorsomedial prefrontal cortex (dmPFC) activation.
• This heightened dmPFC engagement was particularly pronounced during critical game moments.
• Neural activation patterns varied based on the level of ego involvement and game criticality.

Conclusions:

• Neural indices, specifically dmPFC activation, reflect evaluative processing during sports events.
• Emotional investment significantly modulates neural engagement with critical game sequences.
• fNIRS can provide valuable data on viewer engagement in sports, complementing self-report measures.