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Mar 10, 2008 10:37 pm US/Central
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'Your Brain On Cubs': Author Explains Devotion
CHICAGO (CBS) ―
The Chicago Cubs have not played in the World Series since 1945, and they haven't won since 1908. So, how can their fans be so devoted for so long?
CBS 2 Medical Editor Mary Ann Childers takes a look at a new book that offers a scientific explanation on how fans' brains may factor into their fidelity.
What keeps Cubs fans cheering, showing their excitement and hoping for the best, year after disappointing year?
Jerry, a die-hard cubs fan since age 8 is at spring training in Arizona. He knows the history.
"I've been waiting for 100 years," he said. "I don't want to wait another 100 years for them to go to the World Series."
But this year he hopes the team will play well enough, he says, "to win the division and go to the World Series."
Dan Gordon, editor of the new book "Your Brain On Cubs," has an explanation for Jerry's attitude: "We can attribute some of the fact that we keep coming back even though we've been disappointed to things that are ingrained, hard-wired in our brains,"
Gordon says our brains are very active while watching and enjoying baseball, especially in the front of the brain -- the part responsible for building loyalty, tracking statistics and planning for the future.
"Even if there's disappointment associated with loyalty, group affiliation is part of what human beings are," said neuroscientist Steven Small, M.D., Ph.D. of the University of Chicago.
Small says fans can't tune out distraction like players. The fans brains are less sharply focused, and more emotional.
Fans celebrate wins and suffer through losses every time the team plays, with lots of activity in the limbic system -- the emotional control center in the middle of the brain.
Yet experts say Cubs fans are able to cope with sadness and still function because the brain compensates.
"In mice actually if they're showing signs of social defeat, they get over it if they are in a group," Gordon said.
In fact, the atmosphere at a ballgame, from the food to the sounds lights up every region of a fan's brain and keeps them loyal to the loveable losers.
"Maybe to some degree we don't have a choice," Gordon said. "It's our, it's our brains that are responsible for bringing us back."
One part of the brain activated when we watch a sport might surprise you. It's a region linked to religion and our ability to develop beliefs and have faith in something.
Another part of the brain activated by sports is one that reacts to reward, or pleasure. That part of the brain is linked to addictions.
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