A neuroimaging study of how ICT-enabled interruptions induce mental stress

Abstract

In modern society, information and communication technologies (ICTs) provide individuals with social connectivity and facilitate their task execution either in daily life or work. While ICTs bring about numerous benefits, the technologies can expose individuals to frequent interruptions which disrupt thinking processes and potentially cause mental stress. Even though Information Systems research has investigated the effect of interruptions on stress, the neural mechanism underlying how ICT-enabled interruptions induce individuals’ mental stress remains to be further revealed. Accordingly, this neuroimaging study aims to examine the neural activation associated with mental stress in response to ICT-enabled interruptions by means of functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) and electroencephalography (EEG). Furthermore, this research distinguishes the neural activation patterns with regard to quantity and task relevancy of ICT-enabled interruptions.