Social Presence in Online Live Learning Improves Learners’ Mentalizing: An fMRI Study

Abstract As the use of live and pre-recorded learning platforms becomes increasingly prevalent, it is crucial for educators and learners to effectively leverage these formats, acknowledging their distinct educational implications. This study aims to understand how different online learning formats—live and per-recorded—impact students’ perceptions of social presence, likability, credibility, and academic performance, while maintaining consistent instructional quality. Moreover, it explores how these two learning formats uniquely affect cognitive processing in the brain. Behavioral experiments assessed the influence on learning experiences and outcomes, complemented by fMRI analysis to monitor real-time cerebral activity during participant engagement with both learning modalities. Behaviorally, participants reported a heightened sense of social presence and a more favourable attitude during live online learning. From a neural perspective, the precuneus, a cortical region engaged in mentalizing, showed a significantly higher activation during live online learning than that during pre-recorded online learning. In summary, our study suggests that the perception of social presence in live learning environments may automatically enhance individuals’ mentalizing capacity, which may guide strategies for effectively implementation of diverse online learning formats in practical scenarios.