Every breath you take

Several years ago, researchers wanted to study how breathing in through the nose (referred to in the research as nasal inhalation) impacts our sense of smell and its associated brain activity. Being able to accurately measure and understand how we breathe (aka respiratory behavior) is crucial for this kind of research.

Natural breathing patterns are inherently complex, posing a significant challenge for scientists. Breath cycles are not like a perfectly smooth curve; instead, they constantly change and are unique to each person. This variability made it incredibly difficult to identify, model, and track the key information from recordings of subjects’ breathing. A practical, readily available computational tool for performing this crucial task didn’t exist. Without such a means of studying breathing, it was difficult, if not impossible, for scientists to investigate the olfactory (smell) and respiratory (breathing) systems of the brain.

To overcome this obstacle, in 2018, researchers developed BreathMetrics, an open-source tool designed to automatically extract meaningful and relevant features from recordings of human nasal airflow. For example, we consider gait a process that occurs over time rather than trying to understand it one step at a time. Instead of examining respiration as a series of independent incidents — discrete breaths — researchers needed to measure and track nasal airflow as a timeline to investigate how we smell and how our brains control breathing. BreathMetrics provides precisely what is needed: a means to analyze the flow of complex breathing data accurately and effectively.

In a study recently published in the journal Current Biology and reported in The New York Times this week, researchers used BreathMetrics to demonstrate that we exhibit remarkably consistent patterns of breathing. Indeed, they correctly identified people for over 90% of the time using solely what these scientists termed nasal respiratory fingerprints.

The researchers got these results using the miniature wearable respiratory logging device they developed. Even though it pairs with the user’s phone, this isn’t quite a 21st-century Big Brother breathalyzer. It doesn’t take instantaneous readings; instead, the subjects wear it for hours or days at a time. The results were far more reliable when the subject was awake. The pattern remains stable across various activities and over extended periods, ranging from months to nearly two years. If you would like more details, have questions about the study, are curious about the connection of breath to cognition and emotion, or simply enjoy looking at charts, I encourage you to read the paper, which is freely available thanks to the publisher's open-access policy.

As someone who helps others investigate and change entrenched habits, I’m curious about the conclusion that breathing patterns are fixed. Is the way we breathe actually hardwired into our brains?

Perhaps the ways you and I breathe are not as unchanging as our fingerprints or irises; maybe, they are the result of accumulated, habitual behaviour, which is amenable to change. I am not referring to temporary, volitional modifications such as holding your breath or slowing it down on purpose. I am talking about whether it is possible to shift the neurological, unconscious mechanisms of respiratory control and alter your “breathprint.”

Do you ever wonder if our breathing, a central and necessary aspect of our behavior, is something we learn and can therefore change, or if it is innate and immutable?

What’s particularly exciting about BreathMetrics is that it could offer a way to investigate whether someone can use a somatic approach, such as the Feldenkrais Method, to actually and successfully alter such a deep-seated neurophysical pattern. If so, then these patterns are not fingerprints. Instead, even though it might not be easy, our most set ways of moving and behaving might not be so fixed after all.

If you would like to investigate the way you breathe, become more aware of what usually goes unnoticed, and explore how doing so might open up new options and possibilities, please check out my series of recorded Feldenkrais lessons called It’s a Matter of Life and Breath. If you use the coupon code EVERYBREATH, you will receive a 20% discount on the purchase price of the recordings, transcripts, or both until midnight Pacific Time on Monday, 21 July 2025.

The early registration for next month’s Unlocking the Power of ATM: Rolling the Head Between the Hands program for Feldenkrais teachers and trainees also ends at the same time. You won’t need a coupon; just sign up for the program before the deadline to save $30 on your tuition.

Tima Miroshnichenko took both of the photos in today’s blog. I found them on the pexels.com free image website.

The title of this post is inspired by the 1983 worldwide hit song by The Police, featured on their Synchronicity album. Though it’s usually heard as a love song, the songwriter Sting said that it’s actually about control and surveillance.

Finally, a grateful tip of my hat to Meryl R for alerting me to the NYT article, which I had missed entirely, even though I read the Times every day.