Mic distortion using Adobe Audition CS6 with Zoom conferencing software

So am I correct in assuming that the Zoom session and Audition are sharing a feed from one mic? Is it also correct to assume that if you don't use Zoom at the same time, that you can record normally with the mic in Audition? All I'm trying to do here is establish the background conditions, because I think you'll need an answer from somebody more conversant with audio handling on a Mac to answer this. Specifically, I don't know how Macs (which aggregate all sound-capable devices anyway) actually handle a split feed. The reason that I think that this is the area of the problem is that Audition is remarkably good at recording exactly what it's been sent - so it makes sense that it's the sending and splitting of audio that's behind this.