Facial emotion recognition after cosmetic Botulinum toxin injection

Abstract

Objective. Our understanding of emotions express foster by facial muscle mimicry. By this mechanism, it is hypothesized that cosmetic injections of Botulinum toxin (BTX) into facial muscles and its temporary paralysis of them might impair emotion simulation on the face and lead to attenuate its recognition. Material and methods. Our study was a before and after study on the subject who came for cosmetic injection of BTX. The Multimodal Emotion Recognition test (MERT) conducted at their sessions: before, at 8th and 20th week after injection. Our primary study endpoint was changing in the MERT’s mean score. We also compare the score based on different presented modalities. Results. 68 volunteers enrolled in our study. The MERT score changed at the 20th week after BTX injection compared to baseline. Conclusion and discussion. We provide additional arguments in favour of theories asserting that altered facial expression could affect the recognition of emotions.

Keywords

• facial emotion recognition
• botulinum toxin
• multimodal emotion recognition test