Missing link found between brain, immune system; major disease implications

[odeon]

Thinking there must be an easier way.

['andersom']

So, the Christian Scientists are right?  It's all in our mind?



I can think my wrinkles away!

Too late.

I'm telling my daughters not to think, with their pretty faces. 

[Jack]

I'm telling my daughters not to think, with their pretty faces. 

Once read that's how many Asian women avoid wrinkles.

[odeon]

I'm telling my daughters not to think, with their pretty faces. 

Once read that's how many Asian women avoid wrinkles.

I don't see what's so bad about wrinkles. Or thinking.

['andersom']

I'm telling my daughters not to think, with their pretty faces. 

Once read that's how many Asian women avoid wrinkles.

I don't see what's so bad about wrinkles. Or thinking.

Do you think I would give my daughters that advise if I thought they'd take it to heart?

Good wrinkles are awesome.

[Jack]

I'm telling my daughters not to think, with their pretty faces. 

Once read that's how many Asian women avoid wrinkles.

I don't see what's so bad about wrinkles. Or thinking.

It's not really thinking, but showing ones thoughts on the face. It does seem an odd practice to avoid a lifetime of smiles lest there be wrinkles. Interesting though.

[odeon]

Well, I think it's odd. Wrinkles shouldn't be something you want to avoid.

['andersom']

I'm telling my daughters not to think, with their pretty faces. 

Once read that's how many Asian women avoid wrinkles.

I don't see what's so bad about wrinkles. Or thinking.

It's not really thinking, but showing ones thoughts on the face. It does seem an odd practice to avoid a lifetime of smiles lest there be wrinkles. Interesting though.

Isn't there research now showing that people who block the facial ability to visually smile do smile less than those who can use their facial muscles?

[odeon]

Now wondering about how such research is conducted.

It stands to reason, though. Not the fact that they avoid smiling (which to me is incomprehensible) but the fact that they smile less.

[Jack]

Didn't really understand that question; also made sense people who don't smile do smile less.

[odeon]

Didn't really understand that question; also made sense people who don't smile do smile less.

It is kind of obvious, empirically speaking, but I'd still like to know how the research is conducted.

['andersom']

Now wondering about how such research is conducted.

It stands to reason, though. Not the fact that they avoid smiling (which to me is incomprehensible) but the fact that they smile less.

Somewhat related, not specifically at smiling.

Last bit of this article.

Benefits of Contagion

We tend not to notice the positive effects of mimicry and emotional contagion because they take place beneath our conscious awareness. But being immune to these effects can put us at a serious disadvantage.

There’s one easy (and ill-advised) way to test this out: Botox treatment. This powerful nerve poison can help combat wrinkles, but because we use these muscles to express emotions, this beauty regimen can also disrupt the way we feel. In 2008, a functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) experiment at Technische Universität München (TUM) in Germany found that women who had received Botox injections in their frown muscles showed decreased activity in their amygdala, a brain region critical to emotions, when asked to make an angry face. The Botox made it harder for them to express anger in their face, and thus interfered with their ability to feel it.

This kind of emotional disruption is not good news for social interaction: If your face and cognitive reactions are lagging behind the conversation, the person you are talking to will get the impression you are disinterested. It may even darken their view of you. People who receive Botox run the risk of being perceived as less likeable, says David Havas, who studies language and emotion at the University of Wisconsin-Whitewater (though no study to date has proved this).

The idea that emotions can cascade through friendship groups or across populations seems alarming, since it suggests we are not in the driver’s seat in our daily lives. It can certainly lead us unthinkingly to make some bad decisions.

But, notwithstanding its role in mass hysteria, bank runs, and other problem behaviors, emotional contagion appears to have a strong evolutionary function. Without it, we would certainly be lost much of the time.

And this has laughter in the headlines, but the experiments seem to have been about other facial muscles.

Treating laughter lines leaves patients feeling more depressed

11 April 2013

Injections of botulism toxin A (often referred to as Botox) to reduce crows' feet leaves people feeling more depressed, according to new research by a Cardiff University psychologist.
 
A study carried out on people who had received Botox treatment for facial lines found that depending on which facial lines were treated, determined how depressed they felt. Consistent with previous findings, the treatment of frown lines left the clients feeling less depressed, yet people who had received treatment for crows' feet reported feeling more depressed.

In a paper delivered today at the British Psychological Society's Annual Conference, Dr Michael Lewis of the School of Psychology explains that reducing facial lines through the application of Botox injections can affect the way we feel and even how we see the world:

"The expressions that we make on our face affects the emotions we feel; we smile because we are happy but smiling also makes us happy. Treatment with drugs like Botox prevents the patient from being able to make a particular expression. For example, those treated for frown lines with Botox are not able to frown as strongly. This interrupts the feedback they would normally get from their face and they feel less sad."

"The new finding being reported today concerns the impact of treatments for crows' feet. The muscles around the eyes are used when forming a real smile and so it was predicted that treatment of the muscles that cause these will reduce the strength of a smile. The results supported this prediction."

The effects of Botox on other emotions are also considered. Heightened feelings of disgust are a feature of some forms of Obsessive Compulsive Disorder (OCD). Dr Lewis proposes that drugs similar to Botox could be targeted to reduce the facial expression of disgust. Such a treatment might reduce the patient's feelings of disgust and hence might reduce their OCD symptoms.

As for the OCD symptoms, according to Judith Grob, suppressing disgusts can lead to not being able to let go of it. Not being allowed to express disgust over a dirty toilet may make you think on it all day. Therefore she warns to think twice about using botox.

Facial muscle relaxant treatments have a negative effect on emotions
March 11, 2009

One of the most recognizable facial expressions is disgust: the expression displayed by an individual who is exposed to a nauseating image or horrifying story. But what happens when this emotion is not expressed? When the person keeps a straight face – either intentionally or unintentionally – and pretends that nothing is wrong? As Judith Grob discovered, such people experience more negative emotions. ‘They look at the world with negative eyes because they cannot get rid of their feelings of disgust by expressing them. A botox treatment also has an effect on emotional experience, therefore, and not on wrinkles alone’. Grob will receive her PhD on 19 March 2009 at the University of Groningen.

It is not always advisable to give free rein to one’s emotions. A laughing fit during a funeral is regarded as highly inappropriate, as is a loud quarrel in a restaurant. In such situations, it is wise to regulate one’s emotions, the more so because this is socially desirable. But it is not sensible to suppress feelings habitually, says Grob: ‘Previous research had already revealed that people who often suppress their emotions tend to be less healthy’.
Suppression

The suppression of disgust in particular has negative consequences, Grob discovered, even in people who are not aware that they are no longer capable of expressing it ‘because their facial muscles have been paralysed by a botox treatment, for example’. People who express their disgust feel this emotion more intensely for a short period and then think a lot about related subjects. ‘However’, says Grob, ‘when they find themselves in a new situation, the feeling has completely disappeared. This means that they are no longer bothered by it’.
Forbidden thought

Subjects who were asked to suppress their disgust when shown images of, for example, a dirty toilet or a film depicting an amputation were able to do so. ‘But the emotion then found its way into the open through other channels’, says Grob. ‘At the cognitive level, they began to think about disgusting things much more often and also felt much more negatively about other issues. The same phenomenon occurs in a situation where you are not allowed to think of something, say a white bear. Precisely because you are trying to suppress that thought, it becomes hyperaccessible’.
Suppressed muscles

It is interesting that this negative spiral is evident with both conscious and unconscious suppression. ‘We asked some subjects to hold a pen between their lips without telling them the reason. The pen specifically inhibited the facial muscles that people use to express disgust. The same pattern of effects was found in these subjects as in the subjects who suppressed their emotions consciously’. The negative consequences of suppression are thus attributable to suppressed muscles and not to suppressed thoughts.
Paralysing facial muscles

 People who view the world with negative eyes experience more negative emotions. ‘If they also suppress these emotions, they will soon enter a negative spiral. This is something to take into account in a society where more and more people allow their facial muscles to be paralysed by botox treatments for the sake of beauty’, says Grob.
Curriculum Vitae

Judith Grob (Veldhoven, 1978) studied Psychology in Maastricht. Her supervisor was Prof. D. Stapel; Prof. S. Otten and Prof. E.H. Gordijn acted as co-supervisors. Her thesis is entitled Dial E for Emotion - Context and Consequences of Emotion Regulation. Judith Grob currently works as a lecturer at the Department of Psychology of the University of Groningen.
Note for the press

Contact: Judith Grob, telephone (050) 363 6411 (work), e-mail: j.d.m.grob@rug.nl