Neuroscience and Competitive Behavior

Abstract

Cognitive and social neuroscience may provide a wide range of neuroscientific tools and paradigms for the research on competitive behavior. Specifically, hyperscanning is a relatively new paradigm in neuroscience that involves capturing the brain activity of two or more participants engaged in a joint task, such as a competitive game, simultaneously. A brief overview of hyperscanning studies on competition and the intra-brain and inter-brain functional connectivity analysis have been here described. Taking inspiration from previous hyperscanning protocols, this chapter suggests that the neuroscientific study of competitive behavior could also be fruitfully explored in other real-life contexts, such as the educational field, the peer group, the sports field, and the organizational context.