How your emotions are affected by botox

The global market for botox is forecast to reach US$2.9 billion by 2018, which is a pretty amazing feat for a known poison. To make that a little more tangible in a country like Italy more than 250,000 botox procedures are done every year while in Australia more than 70,000 jabs take place annually in the hope of banishing wrinkles. Botox, of course, is Botulinum toxin, a nerve poison that paralyses muscles causing wrinkles caused by the muscles to disappear while the botox is still present and working. There has to be effects from paralysing muscles that would otherwise be performing useful functions and according to a new study one of those impacts is on your emotions.

In the new study researchers had subjects carry out assessments of their understanding of emotions. Immediately before and then again two weeks after they had botox treatments and the results for this group were compared to a control group who had no treatment.

In terms of both accuracy in judgement of other's emotions and also reaction times to other's emotions the botox impaired the ability of people to capture the meaning of other's facial expressions.

In terms of both accuracy in judgement of other’s emotions and also reaction times to other’s emotions the botox impaired the ability of people to capture the meaning of other’s facial expressions. The effect was particularly noticeable when the facial expressions were subtle. When the smile was wide, for instance, botox people could still recognise it but even for these intense stimuli people who had botox did perform worse on recognition tests.

The effect is due to a block of proprioceptive feedback, a biopsychological process that allows you to understand other people’s emotions by reproducing them in your own body. This failure to pick up on the subtle nuances of a person’s mood could significantly impair communication between two people.

There are all sorts of possible consequences from botox treatment, but if you are considering having it done this is a new wrinkle for you to consider.