Eric Walden, PhD, Director of the Texas Tech Neuroimaging Institute

System delays are a major factor that harms user experience. Long delays often result in system abandonment, decreased user performance and lost revenue for businesses. Although studies have provided important contributions on consequences of delays, less is known about why system delays harm the user experience. Using fMRI, we examined how long system delays — compared to short delays — can change a user’s brain state. Results showed that brain state switching was more likely during a long delay than during a short delay. Brain state switching was also more likely at the beginning of a task following a long delay than following a short delay. The default-mode network was more active during long delays than when users were engaged in the task. Furthermore, long delays were significantly related to increased decision time in the task following a delay. This effect was mediated by brain state switching at the beginning of the task after the delay. Additionally, fMRI results suggested that the task became more effortful after long delays than after short delays, as evidenced by increased brain activation. Moreover, this brain activation mirrored the activation in people experiencing pain.

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