Our breath is a unique “fingerprint” that can indicate anxiety or depression, suggests new research.
Each person’s breath is one of a kind, say scientists.
And they were able to identify individuals based solely on their breathing patterns with 96.8% accuracy in the study.
The research team says nasal respiratory “fingerprints” also offer insights into a person’s physical and mental well-being.
The study, published in the journal Current Biology, came about as a result of the researchers’ interest in the sense of smell.
In mammals, the brain processes odor information during inhalation.
The team wanted to know, since every brain is unique, if each person’s breathing pattern reflected that.
Discreet device on the nape of the neck, which recorded airflow through soft tubes connected to the nose. (Soroka et al., Current Biology via SWNS)
The researchers developed a lightweight wearable device that tracks nasal airflow around the clock for 24 hours using soft tubes placed under the nostrils.
Most breathing tests only last one to 20 minutes, focusing on evaluating lung function or diagnosing disease, so the new study produced far more detailed data.
Study author Professor Noam Sobel, of the Weizmann Institute of Science in Israel, said: “You would think that breathing has been measured and analysed in every way.
“Yet we stumbled upon a completely new way to look at respiration. We consider this as a brain readout.”
The research team fitted 100 healthy young adults with the device and asked them to go about their daily lives.
Using the collected data, the researchers were consistently able to identify individual participants using only their breathing patterns.
This high-level accuracy remained consistent throughout multiple retests conducted over a two-year period, rivalling the precision of some voice recognition technologies.
Study co-author Timna Soroka, a doctoral student at Weizmann Institute of Science, said: “I thought it would be really hard to identify someone because everyone is doing different things, like running, studying, or resting.
“But it turns out their breathing patterns were remarkably distinct.”
Tubes beneath the nosthat e measured airflow from each nostril, revealing each person’s unique breathing fingerprint. (Soroka et al., Current Biology via SWNS)
The study also found that the respiratory fingerprints correlated with a person’s body mass index (BMI), sleep-wake cycle, levels of depression and anxiety, and even behavioural traits.
For example, participants who scored relatively higher on anxiety questionnaires had shorter inhales and more variability in the pauses between breaths during sleep.
The research team noted that none of the participants met clinical diagnostic criteria for mental or behavioural conditions.
They say the results suggest that long-term nasal airflow monitoring may serve as a window into physical and emotional well-being.
Sobel said, “We intuitively assume that how depressed or anxious you are changes the way you breathe.
“But it might be the other way around.
“Perhaps the way you breathe makes you anxious or depressed.
If that’s true, we might be able to change the way you breathe to change those conditions.”
But he said the current device still faces “real-world” issues.
A tube that runs under the nose is often associated with illness and may deter adoption.
The device also doesn’t account for mouth breathing and can slip out of place when sleeping.
The team aims to design a more “discreet and comfortable” version for everyday use.
They are already investigating whether people can mimic healthy breathing patterns to improve their mental and emotional states.
Sobel added: “We definitely want to go beyond diagnostics to treatment, and we are cautiously optimistic.”
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