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.