The relationship between how a person holds their face and how they feel is more two-directional than most people assume. The familiar model is that emotion produces expression: you feel low, so your face and posture follow. There is reasonable evidence that information also travels the other way, and that the brain draws conclusions about a person’s state partly by monitoring the body and face that state is being expressed through.
Dr Rami Haidar discussed this with Dr Maria, a psychologist and author, at Excellence Medical Boutique in Jumeirah, Dubai. This article covers what she described about the insula and what the research does and does not support. It is written as a discussion of an area of neuroscience, not as a description of a treatment offered at the clinic.
Dr Rami Haidar | 25th February 2026 | Excellence Medical Boutique, Dubai
The insula is a region of the brain located deep within each hemisphere, roughly behind the ears. It is involved in interoception, the process by which the brain monitors the internal state of the body, and it contributes to how physical sensation is integrated with emotional experience.
Dr Maria describes it as constantly analysing body posture and facial expression. On the basis of what it observes, it forms an interpretation of whether things are going well or whether there is a problem to attend to.
The information the brain receives about a person’s state does not come only from their thoughts. It comes from signals throughout the body, including the position of the face and the way the body is held, and those signals form part of the picture from which an emotional state is assembled.
This is the basis of what psychologists call the facial feedback hypothesis. In its general form it proposes that expression contributes to emotional experience rather than only reflecting it, which is why Dr Maria concludes that the phrase fake it till you make it has some grounding.
The broad proposition that expression and posture feed back into emotional experience has reasonable support, though the size of the effect and the conditions under which it appears have been debated, and some individual findings in this field have been difficult to replicate. It is an active area rather than a settled one.
This is worth stating plainly rather than glossing over, because the idea is frequently overstated. The honest position is that there is something real here and that it is more modest and more contested than a confident summary would suggest.
Depression is a serious medical condition with established treatments, and nothing described here is one of them. Aesthetic treatment is not offered at Excellence Medical Boutique as a treatment for depression, for stress, or for any mental health condition, and it should not be understood or pursued as such.
Anyone experiencing persistent low mood, loss of interest, or difficulty functioning should speak to their doctor or a mental health professional. Effective help exists, and delaying it in favour of something that was never designed to address the condition is the real risk in an article like this one.
What the discussion does support is a more interesting point about why patients describe aesthetic outcomes in emotional terms. If the brain is partly reading a person’s state from their face and posture, the way somebody carries themselves is not purely an output of how they feel.
That is a reason for care rather than enthusiasm in aesthetic practice. Treatment that flattens expression has costs beyond the aesthetic, which is an argument for preserving movement and character. Dr Rami Haidar treats preserved expression as part of a good result rather than as a compromise on one.
If you are experiencing persistent low mood or think you may be depressed, please speak to your doctor or a mental health professional. That is the appropriate route, and it is not one an aesthetic clinic substitutes for.
For questions about aesthetic treatment and preserving natural expression, Dr Rami Haidar sees patients at Excellence Medical Boutique in Jumeirah, Dubai.
A region of the brain located deep within each hemisphere, roughly behind the ears. It is involved in interoception, the monitoring of the body’s internal state, and contributes to how physical sensation is integrated with emotional experience.
There is reasonable evidence that expression and posture feed back into emotional experience rather than only reflecting it. The size of that effect and the conditions under which it appears remain debated, so it is a real but modest phenomenon.
There is some grounding for it, which is the point Dr Maria makes. The brain draws on signals from the body and face when assembling an emotional state, so how a person holds themselves is not purely an output of how they feel.
This article makes no such claim and Excellence Medical Boutique does not offer aesthetic treatment for depression or any mental health condition. Depression is a medical condition with established treatments, and it should be discussed with a doctor.
The proposal that facial expression contributes to emotional experience rather than simply expressing it. It is a long-standing idea in psychology with genuine support, and also one where several individual findings have proved difficult to replicate.
Dr Maria describes the insula as analysing body posture alongside facial expression. Both form part of the information from which the brain assembles an interpretation of a person’s state.
There is a reasonable argument that it should. If the brain draws on facial signals when interpreting emotional state, treatment that flattens expression carries costs beyond the aesthetic, which is one reason for a conservative approach.
To your doctor or a mental health professional. Effective treatments exist, and an aesthetic clinic is not the right starting point for a mental health concern.
Located in the heart of Jumeirah, Dubai, Excellence Medical Boutique is more than a clinic, it’s a destination. A sanctuary where innovation, expertise and care come together to enhance your natural beauty and confidence. Excellence Medical Boutique is conveniently located on 197 Jumeira St, Jumeirah, Jumeirah 1, Dubai. This makes it easy for patients travelling from across Dubai to visit for consultation and treatment.
