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Botox injections in forehead alter brain activity linked to emotions

Brain scans show that people who have had Botox injections have altered brain activity when they look at happy and angry faces, possibly because the paralysis of muscles means they can’t mimic the expressions they see

By Alice Klein

23 March 2023

Close up someone injecting Botox in a woman's forehead

Botox injections paralyse muscles so frown and smile lines aren’t seen

hedgehog94/Shutterstock

After having Botox injections in the forehead, people’s brains respond in a different way when they see images of faces showing emotion. This may mean they find it harder to interpret other people’s emotions because of disrupted signalling between their facial muscles and their brains.

Mitchell Brin – who works at AbbVie, which makes Botox, and at the University of California, Irvine – and his colleagues scanned the brains of 10 women aged between 33 and…

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