Virtual Meetings and Your Brain: Four Ways to Refresh

Almost as soon as the COVID-19 pandemic forced the widespread adoption of remote working practices, the term “Zoom fatigue” entered the business lexicon as a synonym of the tiredness, worry, or burnout associated with the use of meeting platforms such as Zoom, Teams, and Webex. Workers reported feeling exhausted by the endless cycle of virtual meetings and attributed their low energy levels to factors such as the lack of natural interactions with colleagues or the increased self-consciousness from the perception of others staring at them.

Despite the current return-to-office trend, virtual meetings are here to stay. One recent study found that one-third of professionals still have up to four virtual meetings a day.1 It is also estimated that 98% of all organizational meetings will have at least one remote participant going forward.2 So virtual meeting fatigue is still an ongoing problem.

Science-based evidence of virtual meeting fatigue, however, has been harder to come by. Numerous research studies based on self-reported survey data have examined virtual meeting fatigue, as well as its links to undesired outcomes such as poor meeting engagement, physical strains, stress, and decreased productivity. Our recent research, however, now shows that there is a neurological basis to virtual meeting fatigue.3

In two separate experiments, we analyzed the effects of virtual meetings using electroencephalography (EEG) to measure the activity of the central nervous system, and electrocardiography (ECG) to assess autonomic nervous system (ANS) activation. Electrodes were placed on the head and chest to noninvasively record the brain and heart activity of participants engaged in a virtual meeting.

In the first experiment, study participants took part in both a 50-minute videoconference and face-to-face meeting while wearing EEG and ECG devices.