ReviewJournal of neuroengineering and rehabilitation2023
Manipulating facial musculature with functional electrical stimulation as an intervention for major depressive disorder: a focused search of literature for a proposal.
Review in Journal of neuroengineering and rehabilitation, 2023. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 7 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.
What it found
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The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
7 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it, 11 citations in OpenAlex.
- Botulinum Toxin Injections for Psychiatric Disorders: A Systematic Review of the Clinical Trial Landscape.Toxins · 2024Pooled it
- Functional electrical stimulation for major depressive disorder: Protocol for a pilot randomized controlled trial.PloS one · 2026Article
- Dry-printed electrodes for transcutaneous electrical stimulation of innervated muscles: Towards wearable and closed-loop stimulation.Journal of neuroengineering and rehabilitation · 2025Article
- "Take-home" functional electrical stimulation for depression: protocol for a prototype development and proof of concept randomized controlled trial.Pilot and feasibility studies · 2025Article
- Neuromuscular electrical stimulation for facial wrinkles and sagging: The 8-week prospective, split-face, controlled trial in Asians.Journal of cosmetic dermatology · 2024Article
- Proprioception, Emotion and Social Responsiveness in Children with Developmental Disorders: An Exploratory Study in Autism Spectrum Disorder, Cerebral Palsy and Different Neurodevelopmental Situations.Children (Basel, Switzerland) · 2024Article
- Boosting brain-computer interfaces with functional electrical stimulation: potential applications in people with locked-in syndrome.Journal of neuroengineering and rehabilitation · 2023Review
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
11 authors at 8 institutions in 2 countries.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
backgroundMajor Depressive Disorder (MDD) is associated with interoceptive deficits expressed throughout the body, particularly the facial musculature. According to the facial feedback hypothesis, afferent feedback from the facial muscles suffices to alter the emotional experience. Thus, manipulating the facial muscles could provide a new "mind-body" intervention for MDD. This article provides a conceptual overview of functional electrical stimulation (FES), a novel neuromodulation-based treatment modality that can be potentially used in the treatment of disorders of disrupted brain connectivity, such as MDD.
methodsA focused literature search was performed for clinical studies of FES as a modulatory treatment for mood symptoms. The literature is reviewed in a narrative format, integrating theories of emotion, facial expression, and MDD.
resultsA rich body of literature on FES supports the notion that peripheral muscle manipulation in patients with stroke or spinal cord injury may enhance central neuroplasticity, restoring lost sensorimotor function. These neuroplastic effects suggest that FES may be a promising innovative intervention for psychiatric disorders of disrupted brain connectivity, such as MDD. Recent pilot data on repetitive FES applied to the facial muscles in healthy participants and patients with MDD show early promise, suggesting that FES may attenuate the negative interoceptive bias associated with MDD by enhancing positive facial feedback. Neurobiologically, the amygdala and nodes of the emotion-to-motor transformation loop may serve as potential neural targets for facial FES in MDD, as they integrate proprioceptive and interoceptive inputs from muscles of facial expression and fine-tune their motor output in line with socio-emotional context.
conclusionsManipulating facial muscles may represent a mechanistically novel treatment strategy for MDD and other disorders of disrupted brain connectivity that is worthy of investigation in phase II/III trials.
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Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.