WASHINGTON (dpa-AFX) - Scientists at the Weizmann Institute of Science in Israel have discovered that each person has a unique way of breathing through the nose, which they refer to as a 'breathing fingerprint.' This pattern could help doctors better understand and treat both physical and mental health conditions.
The study, published in the journal Current Biology, found that people can be identified by their breathing with up to 96.8 percent accuracy.
Researchers, including Timna Soroka and Noam Sobel, had 100 volunteers wear a device that tracks airflow through each nostril. Even with just one hour of data, they could correctly identify people 43 percent of the time. With 24 hours of breathing data, the accuracy increased significantly.
'The idea of using an individual's breathing pattern as a unique signature has been discussed for decades within the respiratory science community. You can easily see each person's uniqueness when you measure different people,' Soroka explained to ScienceAlert.
'However, there was no convenient way to measure it until now. The development of a tiny wearable device capable of recording over extended periods allowed us to measure 100 participants over 24 hours. This, in turn, enabled us to present the concept in a much more compelling way.'
The device recorded a range of breathing details using a system called BreathMetrics, which looks at 24 different breathing features. Since most studies only measure breathing for about 20 minutes, this research gave a much fuller picture, covering times when people were resting, moving, or doing everyday tasks.
The study didn't just show that breathing patterns can identify someone; it also found that breathing changes with activity levels and is linked to things like body weight (BMI).
'We definitely want to go beyond diagnostics to treatment, and we are cautiously optimistic,' Soroka concluded.
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