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Article History

Received: 27 October 2025

Accepted: 20 January 2026

First Online: 29 January 2026

Declarations

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: This study utilizes publicly available facial expression datasets, namely RAF-DB, CK+, and AffectNet. Accordingly, the study did not require approval from an institutional review board or ethics committee, as it involved the secondary analysis of publicly available datasets. No new data were collected, and the authors had no direct interaction with human participants. Ethical approval for the original data collection was obtained by the dataset creators prior to public release. All datasets used in this study were originally collected in accordance with relevant ethical guidelines and regulations. The original data collection procedures complied with the principles of the Declaration of Helsinki and applicable national regulations. The present study adheres to these ethical standards through the responsible secondary use of the data. The RAF-DB (Real-world Affective Faces Database) is available for academic research use through its official dataset page, available at (RAF-DB). In addition, a publicly accessible research mirror of the dataset is hosted on Kaggle and the Kaggle repository used in this study can be accessed at (RAF-DB), and the CK+ is available on the official website at (CK+). The AffectNet dataset was obtained through an official licensed request from the dataset authors and is used strictly for academic research purposes. Access to AffectNet requires administrative approval and compliance with the terms and conditions specified by the dataset providers. The dataset is available on the official AffectNet website at (AffectNet), with access granted upon submission of a signed license agreement and approval by the dataset administrators. All ethical considerations, including subject privacy, informed consent, and data usage restrictions, were addressed by the original data collectors before public distribution. Since this study exclusively relies on secondary data that is either publicly accessible or obtained through proper licensing, no direct human participation was involved, and therefore informed consent was not required from participants for this research. During the collection of the original datasets, the dataset providers ensured that informed consent was obtained from all participants. Prior to participation, individuals were informed about the study objectives as well as the possible risks and benefits involved. For participants under the age of 16, the original dataset providers obtained informed consent from their parents or legally authorized representatives. The authors of the present study used only publicly available, anonymized data and did not have any direct interaction with the participants.

: During the original data collection, the dataset providers obtained informed consent from all participants for the publication of their facial images. The RAF-DB and AffectNet datasets used in this study are publicly available for research purposes and contain anonymized images released under their respective usage agreements. The authors did not collect, modify, or disclose any personally identifiable information.

: The authors declare no competing interests.