Research has already determined that a side effect of Botox is the inability to fully express emotions. New research, according to msnbc.com , reveals anther side effect: the inability to fully feel emotions.
Botox is made of a toxic protein called Botulinum toxin , and it temporarily paralyzes muscles that cause wrinkles. Botox’s paralyzing side effects mean no wrinkles but also no movement of those muscles.
Scientists believe that facial expressions themselves may influence emotional experiences. If a person with limited ability to make facial expressions may also have a limited ability to feel emotions.
Researcher Joshua Davis, a psychologist at Barnard College in New York, commented, “With Botox, a person can respond otherwise normally to an emotional event, a sad movie scene, but will have less movement in the facial muscles that have been injected, and therefore less feedback to the brain about such facial expressivity.”
In his study called “Botox Linked to Weakened Ability to Experience Emotions“, Davis and his colleagues showed groups of individuals emotionally charged videos before and after they were injected with either Botox or Restylane (the control group), which adds filler but doesn’t limit the movement of the muscles.
Compared to the control group, the Botox participants experienced a decrease in the strength of emotional experience and responded less strongly to mildly positive clips after the Botox injections rather than before.
This study suggests that feedback from facial expressions to the brain can influence the overall experience of emotions. The simple act of smiling can help make a person feel happy.
Take a look at the video below about a woman who has had 52 cosmetic procedures and read about how botox has also been suggested as a cure to depression.
A recent article on an Australian website delineates how a person’s body language is interpreted by others.