Acting Emotions: a comprehensive dataset of elicited emotions

Emotions encompass physiological systems that can be assessed through biosignals like electromyography and electrocardiography. Prior investigations in emotion recognition have primarily focused on general population samples, overlooking the specific context of theatre actors who possess exceptional abilities in conveying emotions to an audience, namely acting emotions. We conducted a study involving 11 professional actors to collect physiological data for acting emotions to investigate the correlation between biosignals and emotion expression. Our contribution is the DECEiVeR (DatasEt aCting Emotions Valence aRousal) dataset, a comprehensive collection of various physiological recordings meticulously curated to facilitate the recognition of a set of five emotions. Moreover, we conduct a preliminary analysis on modeling the recognition of acting emotions from raw, low- and mid-level temporal and spectral data and the reliability of physiological data across time. Our dataset aims to leverage a deeper understanding of the intricate interplay between biosignals and emotional expression. It provides valuable insights into acting emotion recognition and affective computing by exposing the degree to which biosignals capture emotions elicited from inner stimuli.