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Israeli Researchers Identify Breathing As New Form of Biometrics, Capable of Revealing Identity and Even Subtle Human Emotions
A team of scientists from the Weizmann Institute of Science in Israel is investigating something unexpected: human breathing as a form of personal identification. This is not about traditional medical diagnoses nor tests for athletes. The focus of the study is to understand whether the way we breathe can tell who we are and even how we feel.
The answer is surprising: yes, each person seems to have a unique breathing pattern — like a fingerprint.
Unique Nasal Signature
The research was led by neuroscientist Noam Sobel and PhD student Timna Soroka. The scientists analyzed the nasal breathing of individuals over 24 hours and found distinct patterns for each one.
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Even after many months, or almost two years, these patterns remained stable. The accuracy of identification was 96.8%.
The experiment was conducted with a lightweight and customized device. It was placed on the nape of the neck and had tubes that gently passed under the nostrils. The device continuously recorded airflow, capturing data both during sleep and daily activities.
Unlike quick medical tests, the method provided a detailed analysis of breathing over an entire day. This allowed researchers to observe how breathing varied at different times, such as during rest, study, or exercise.
Patterns That Reveal More Than Identity
Upon realizing that breathing patterns were unique, the scientists decided to go further. In a group of 100 healthy young adults, they observed how breathing related to physical and behavioral characteristics.
Indicators such as body mass index (BMI), anxiety, depression, and emotional traits were included.
The data revealed intriguing connections. People with higher anxiety, for example, showed shorter inspirations and irregular pauses between breaths, especially during sleep.
For scientists, this opens a new possibility: if breathing reveals emotional state, could altering the pattern change that state?
New Approach to Mental Health
Sobel himself commented that if it is possible to change the way someone breathes, it may be possible to influence how that person feels.
Although this idea is still under investigation, it is not entirely new. Breathing techniques are already used in practices such as meditation, yoga, and psychological therapies.
The difference in this study lies in the depth of the collected data. 24 different respiratory characteristics were analyzed, such as air volume, pauses, and even the difference between nostrils. With this information, researchers created a detailed model of each participant.
This model helped to understand how breathing connects to emotional and cognitive states. The expectation is that, in the future, a similar device could continuously monitor people’s mental health, as already happens with steps and heart rates in smartwatches.
Breathing and Brain: A Direct Connection
The study reinforces a neuroscience theory that breathing is not just a physical function, but also a brain function. Inhaling and exhaling connect with areas of the brain responsible for emotions, attention, and memory.
Previous research has already shown that nasal breathing influences brain rhythms. Inhaling through the nose can improve focus and even affect emotional perception. However, this was the first time that respiratory rhythms were used to identify individuals and understand how they feel.
The team used specific analysis tools, such as BreathMetrics, and advanced time-series methods, which extracted over 7,000 characteristics of breathing. With this, they proved that the breathing pattern is unique and stable, even with data from just one hour.
The best performance was observed during waking hours. During sleep, the results were also relevant, but with a higher chance of technical failures, such as tube displacement.
A New Type of Biometrics
With the results obtained, scientists believe that nasal flow could become a new type of biometrics — something comparable to retina or fingerprint scans. However, there are still challenges to make the technology practical for everyday use.
The current device, although lightweight, is still visible and may resemble medical equipment. This can cause discomfort in daily use. Therefore, the team is developing a smaller and more comfortable version.
Some of the researchers are connected to a company called Sniff Logic Ltd., which aims to transform this technology into something accessible and functional. The ultimate goal is to go beyond diagnosis and reach treatment.
Training Human Breathing to Treat Emotions
The idea now is to investigate whether mimicking healthier breathing patterns could bring benefits to mood or cognition. If this works, breathing could become a practical tool to improve well-being.
Breathing has an interesting characteristic: it can be controlled but also occurs automatically. This makes it a good indicator of the relationship between mind and body.
For years, scientists have observed how disorders such as anxiety, depression, and autism affect human breathing. What this study shows is that even small variations in the air that enters and exits through the nostrils can provide relevant information, even in people without clinical diagnoses.
Toward New Paths
The participants in the study did not present psychiatric disorders. Still, their breathing revealed significant differences. This indicates that respiratory analysis could pave the way for gentler and more detailed approaches in mental health.
As this line of research advances, one thing becomes clear: breathing, which for a long time was seen merely as a mechanical function, may be one of the most precise and discreet ways to understand human beings.
With information from ZME Science.
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