A team of researchers used a new method to analyze human breathing, revealing that each individual's breathing pattern is as unique as a fingerprint and can be used to identify people with up to 96.8% accuracy.
This discovery, published in the journal Current Biology, opens up unprecedented possibilities for understanding the relationship between breathing and the brain and may pave the way for diagnosing and treating psychiatric conditions by monitoring breathing alone.
The study began with a simple question in an olfactory lab at the Weizmann Institute of Science in Israel: If the brain processes odors during inhalation, does a person's breathing pattern reflect each individual's unique neural structure?
To answer this question, researchers designed a lightweight device worn on the nose that precisely monitors airflow through flexible tubes placed below the nostrils.
This device allowed the team, led by scientist Timna Soroka, to monitor the breathing patterns of 100 healthy adults throughout their daily lives, recording 24 respiratory parameters.
The team found that breathing patterns vary significantly from person to person, allowing individuals to be identified with high accuracy. In fact, recording just one hour of breathing is sufficient to obtain distinct signals, with accuracy increasing with continued monitoring.
But more importantly, breathing not only revealed identity, but also indicated health and psychological indicators such as: body mass index, sleep quality, wake cycles, anxiety and depression levels, and individual behavioral traits.
For example, participants who reported feeling anxious showed a faster and more variable breathing pattern during sleep, suggesting that breathing could be used as a tool to measure psychological state.
However, none of the participants had clinically significant psychiatric disorders.
"We assume that anxiety or depression changes the way you breathe, but perhaps the opposite is true—that your breathing affects your psychological state. If that's true, we might be able to modify breathing to change these states," says researcher Noam Sobel of the institute.
Despite the promising study results, the device still faces some challenges. The visible nasal tube does not measure mouth breathing and may be affected during sleep.
The team is currently working on developing a more convenient and simpler version to facilitate daily use.
Researchers have also begun exploring the potential of mimicking healthy breathing patterns to improve psychological well-being, in an effort to move from diagnosis to treatment.
