This Is Your Brain on Zoom

Leah Croll, MD

We have long known that Zoom meetings tend to feel exhausting and unsatisfying, but now there may be a physiologic explanation. New research suggests that the brain processes social interactions over Zoom differently from face-to-face interactions.

"Zoom appears to be an impoverished social communication system relative to in-person conditions," explained Joy Hirsch, PhD, in a news release. She is the senior author of a study published in the journal Imaging Neuroscience and a professor of psychiatry, comparative medicine, and neuroscience at Yale University.

The Yale researchers found "that the social systems of the human brain are more active during real live in-person encounters than on Zoom."

Previous research has hinted that connecting with others virtually isn't quite the same as meeting in person. For example, in 2022, researchers at Columbia and Stanford universities found that Zoom stifles creativity and produces fewer business ideas than in-person meetings. Recent research demonstrated objective evidence of so-called "Zoom fatigue."

Until recently, it was thought that the complex neural circuitry recruited during social interactions would not discriminate between virtual and in-person meetings. This new study demonstrates that relative to face-to-face interactions, there is a significant reduction in brain activity and exchange of social cues when interacting on Zoom.

Zoom vs In-Person Brain Activity

The researchers took 28 healthy volunteers and recorded multiple neural response signals of them speaking in person vs on Zoom to see whether face-processing mechanisms differ depending upon social context. They used sophisticated imaging and neuromonitoring tools to monitor the real-time brain activity of the same pairs discussing the same exact things, once in person and once over Zoom.

When study participants were face-to-face, they had higher levels of synchronized neural activity, spent more time looking directly at each other, and demonstrated increased arousal (as indicated by larger pupil diameters), suggestive of heightened engagement and increased mutual exchange of social cues. In keeping with these behavioral findings, the study also found that face-to-face meetings produced more activation of the dorsal-parietal cortex on functional near-infrared spectroscopy. Similarly, in-person encounters were associated with more theta oscillations seen on electroencephalography, which are associated with face processing. These multimodal findings led the authors to conclude that there are probably separable neuroprocessing pathways for live faces presented in person and for the same live faces presented over virtual media.

It makes sense that virtual interfaces would disrupt the exchange of social cues. After all, it is nearly impossible to make eye contact in a Zoom meeting; in order to look directly at your partner, you need to look into the camera where you cannot see your partner's expressions and reactions. Perhaps current virtual technology limits our ability to detect more subtle facial movements. Plus, the downward angle of the typical webcam may distort the visual information that we are able to glean over virtual encounters. Face-to-face meetings, on the other hand, offer a direct line of sight that allows for optimal exchange of subtle social cues rooted in the eyes and facial expressions.

The rapid and widespread adoption of virtual meeting technology is unstoppable at this point, but we're only just beginning to understand how processing social information differs between in-person and virtual contexts.

If technological limitations contribute to this difference in brain activity between Zoom and in-person interactions, then it will be interesting to see how that effect changes as our technology evolves — and how we evolve to accommodate the increasingly blurred lines between the digital world and real life.

In the mean time, we need to be careful not to lose sight of the importance of social connectedness in everyday life. In a post-pandemic world, working from home has become the norm for many, telemedicine is changing the doctor-patient relationship, and vulnerable patient groups are still stuck at home much of the time. Zoom, FaceTime, and the like are our lifelines. But, at least for now, it's imperative that we don't over-rely on virtual interactions because they simply do not replace the benefits of in-person socialization. The value of face-to-face interaction is a healthy habit as important as any other.

Leah Croll, MD, is an assistant professor of neurology at the Lewis Katz School of Medicine at Temple University. She completed her neurology residency and stroke fellowship at NYU Langone Health. Aside from clinical practice in stroke neurology, her professional interests include education and medical media. In her free time, she is working on trying all the pastries in Philadelphia, one bakery at a time.

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Cite this: This Is Your Brain on Zoom - Medscape - Dec 21, 2023.