Although botox has the miraculous ability of wiping away years of emotional expression on your face, it may have the unintended effect of actually wiping away your own ability to read the expression on the faces of others.

In a recent study, scientists found that women who had botox injections were less accurate when it came to reading expressions than those who had their wrinkles plumped up with an artificial filler.

This research sheds new light on a key theory about how we communicate with others. Namely, that we use facial mimicry to help discern and interpret the emotions of other people. The reason that botox would impair a person’s sub-conscious ability to mimic another’s expression and a facial filler would not is due to the marvelous paralysing effect that botox has, what with it being a nerve agent and all. The areas where botox is most often injected also happen to be the key areas where much of this facial mimicry takes place. Simply put, if your muscles can’t move you can’t mimic.

So there you go; another good reason not to paralyse your face.

[Source : KTLA]