With videoconferencing skyrocketing in popularity since the pandemic, there have been anecdotal accounts of a phenomenon some call “Zoom fatigue” – a unique state of exhaustion reported by those who feel shattered after video calls.
Now a brain-monitoring study has supported the phenomenon, finding a connection between video-conferencing in educational settings and physical symptoms linked to fatigue, reports The Washington Post.
The study, published in the journal Scientific Reports, looked for physiological signs of fatigue in 35 students attending lectures on engineering at an Austrian university. Half of the class attended the 50-minute lecture via videoconference in a nearby lab and a face-to-face lecture the next week, while the other half attended first in person, then online.
Participants were monitored with electroencephalogram (EEG) and electrocardiogram (ECG) instruments that recorded electrical activity in the brain and their heart rhythms. They also participated in surveys about their mood and fatigue levels.
The researchers searched for physical changes correlated with mental fatigue, including distinctive brain waves, reduced heart rate and hints the nervous system might be trying to compensate for growing exhaustion during the lecture.
There were “notable” differences between the in-person and online groups, the researchers write. Video participants’ fatigue mounted over the course of the session, and their brain states showed they were struggling to pay attention.
The groups’ moods varied, too, with in-person participants reporting they felt livelier, happier and more active, and online participants saying they felt tired, drowsy and “fed up”.
Overall, the researchers write, the study offers evidence of the physical toll of video-conferencing and suggests that it “should be considered as a complement to face-to-face interaction, but not as a substitute”.
They say the research should be replicated in business settings and homes to get a more accurate sense of how such sessions affect participants, calling for further studies that include more portions of the brain and a broader participant base.
The research was conducted as part of “Techno-stress in Organisations”, an Austrian-funded project devoted to collecting hard evidence about how technology affects human bodies and brains. Other studies published over the course of the project covered “digital detoxes”, workplace interruptions and social network use.
Study details
Videoconference fatigue from a neurophysiological perspective: experimental evidence based on electroencephalography (EEG) and electrocardiography (ECG)
René Riedl, Kyriaki Kostoglou, Selina Wriessnegger & Gernot Müller-Putz.
Published in Scientific Reports on 26 October 2023
Abstract
In the recent past, many organisations and people have substituted face-to-face meetings with videoconferences. Among others, tools like Zoom, Teams, and Webex have become the “new normal” of human social interaction in many domains (e.g., business, education). However, this radical adoption and extensive use of videoconferencing tools also has a dark side, referred to as videoconference fatigue (VCF). To date only self-report evidence has shown that VCF is a serious issue. However, based on self-reports alone it is hardly possible to provide a comprehensive understanding of a cognitive phenomenon like VCF. Against this background, we examined VCF also from a neurophysiological perspective. Specifically, we collected and analysed electroencephalography (continuous and event-related) and electrocardiography (heart rate and heart rate variability) data to investigate whether VCF can also be proven on a neurophysiological level. We conducted a laboratory experiment based on a within-subjects design (N = 35). The study context was a university lecture, which was given in a face-to-face and videoconferencing format. In essence, the neurophysiological data—together with questionnaire data that we also collected—show that 50 min videoconferencing, if compared to a face-to-face condition, results in changes in the human nervous system which, based on existing literature, can undoubtedly be interpreted as fatigue. Thus, individuals and organisations must not ignore the fatigue potential of videoconferencing. A major implication of our study is that videoconferencing should be considered as a possible complement to face-to-face interaction, but not as a substitute.
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