A Review of 25 Spontaneous and Dynamic Facial Expression Databases of Basic Emotions

Most prior research on basic emotions has relied upon posed, static displays that do not accurately reflect the facial behavior seen in everyday life. To address this gap, the present paper aims to highlight existing facial expression databases (FEDBs) that feature spontaneous and dynamic displays of the six basic emotions. To assist readers in their decisions about stimulus selection, we comprehensively review 25 FEDBs in terms of three key dimensions: (a) conceptual features which reflect thematic approaches in database construction and validation, i.e., emotional content and elicitation procedures, encoder demographics, measurement and elicitation techniques; (b) technical features which concern technological aspects in stimulus development, i.e., stimulus numbers and duration, frame rate, and resolution; and (c) practical features which entail information about database access and potential ethical restrictions. Finally, we outline some of the remaining challenges in stimulus generation and make recommendations for future research.