Botox Might Disrupt Facial Expressions Needed for Human Interaction

When people see a cute baby or a happy dog approaching them on the street, their first instinct is to smile at the baby or the dog. Scientific evidence has shown that not being able to smile at someone would not allow people to have the same sort of mutual engagement as they do when they smile. Being able to see the way a person is feeling is an important aspect of recognizing the emotions of a person. There is some growing concern in this era of Botox that anything that disrupts the ability to emote is a cause for concern. Botox can alter the look of the face as well as “flatten the look” of a person which can cause a disconnection that doesn’t allow a person to properly express his or her feelings to others.

Botox and Emotions Explained by Experts

In an interview with the New York Times, Paula Niedenthal, a professor of psychology at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, and the author of several studies on facial mimicry and social importance, said “People these days are constantly rearranging their facial appearance in ways that prevent engaging in facial mimicry, having no idea how much we use our faces to coordinate and manage social interactions.”

Thanks to the example set by celebrities like the Kardashian family, the popularity of Botox injections has gone up more than 800\\% since the year 2000. Besides Botox, the use of soft tissue fillers has gone up 300\\%. In addition, the American Academy of Facial Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery has noticed a growing trend known as “prejuvenation” which is when men and women have cosmetic work performed in their 20s and 30s to prevent signs of aging such as wrinkles before they even start to impact the look of a person.

Each time people interact, they are subtly reflecting each other’s facial expressions and showing they are engaged and participating in a conversation so impacting the ability to see the facial expressions changes the social dynamic between people. Researchers have found that hindering the ability to make facial expressions by mechanical means (such as chewing gum or wearing a mouth guard) or by using Botox to temporarily paralyze the face lessens the ability of people to interpret the facial expressions of others. MRI scans have shown that Botox limits the amount of activation in areas of the brain used to interpret and modulate emotional states. There have been other studies that have shown a decrease in the intensity of emotional experience after a person has Botox injections. This means a person could lose the ability to feel happy as well as lose the ability to feel sadness.

Jeffrey Cohn is a professor of psychology and psychiatry at the University of Pittsburgh. He studies the link between a lack of facial expressiveness and depression. He told The New York Times, “Muscle movements in the face sustain interactions between people, and if you take that out, you’re working with a blank slate. That’s not an effective way of maintaining rapport or establishing connection.”

Botox Makes People Slower at Reading Emotions

Researchers have also discovered that people that undergo Botox injections in the areas around the eyes and forehead with expressive muscles have more difficulty understanding emotions that are expressed in written statements and they have trouble remembering emotional words if their faces were immobilized thanks to the wearing of a face-hardening algae mask.

David Havas, associate professor of psychology at the University of Wisconsin-Whitewater, has performed a number of studies on facial mimicry. He noted “I think we might be grossly underestimating just how powerful our facial expressions are. We have to recognize how informationally rich facial feedback is and when we block it, we are cutting off a major channel about our own emotions and information about social emotions.”

Botox Disrupts Reading Human Emotions

Even though primates can engage in mimicry of facial expressions, humans have a more refined musculature around the eyes. Plus, humans have skin that is smoother and thinner which makes it easy to view and react to facial twitches.  According to Frans de Waal, a primatologist and ethologist at Emory University, “Facial mimicry is a very ancient mechanism of connecting and not something you want disrupted by Botox or other procedures Today I think primates are sometimes more perceptive than humans at reading facial expressions and body language because that’s all they have to go by, whereas we are always waiting for the words, and words can be highly misleading.”

Botox remains a very popular method of turning back the clock and providing a more youthful appearance thanks to its ability to lessen and eliminate the appearance of fine lines and wrinkles on the face. Patients need to aware of the changes it can make to the face besides the elimination of wrinkles. Once they are aware of the changes it can make in the ability to show human emotion, as well as how it lessens the ability of others to tell the thoughts and feelings of those who had Botox injections, patients will be able to make an informed decision about having Botox injections.

MA