Botox bad news for bibliophiles
Jun. 2nd, 2010 01:02 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
kestrellVia the MindHacks blog
Botox may diminish the experience of emotion
http://scienceblogs.com/neurophilosophy/2010/04/botox_may_diminish_the_experience_of_emotions.php
block quote start
Botox, which is used by millions of people every year to reduce wrinkles and frown lines on the forehead, works by paralyzing the muscles involved in producing
facial expressions. A study
due to be published in the journal Psychological Science suggests that by doing so, it impairs the ability to process the emotional content of language,
and may diminish the quality of emotional experiences.
....The researchers found that botox slowed the reading of the sentences containing sad emotional content, which, as the earlier work showed, would normally
cause the frown muscle to contract. The reading time for the happy and neutral sentence was the same in both sessions. The researchers assume that the increase in reading time means that paralysis of the frown muscles hindered the participants' understanding of the emotional content of the sad sentences.
They also argue that their findings support the hypothesis that feedback from the muscles involved in producing facial expressions is critical in regulating emotional experiences.
block quote end
Botox may diminish the experience of emotion
http://scienceblogs.com/neurophilosophy/2010/04/botox_may_diminish_the_experience_of_emotions.php
block quote start
Botox, which is used by millions of people every year to reduce wrinkles and frown lines on the forehead, works by paralyzing the muscles involved in producing
facial expressions. A study
due to be published in the journal Psychological Science suggests that by doing so, it impairs the ability to process the emotional content of language,
and may diminish the quality of emotional experiences.
....The researchers found that botox slowed the reading of the sentences containing sad emotional content, which, as the earlier work showed, would normally
cause the frown muscle to contract. The reading time for the happy and neutral sentence was the same in both sessions. The researchers assume that the increase in reading time means that paralysis of the frown muscles hindered the participants' understanding of the emotional content of the sad sentences.
They also argue that their findings support the hypothesis that feedback from the muscles involved in producing facial expressions is critical in regulating emotional experiences.
block quote end
