Fig. 1: Distinguishing between respiratory rate and respiratory peaks.
A, B An illustration of the wearable device, attached to A the nape of the neck and B connected by nasal cannula to measure nasal airflow in each nostril separately. C Four consecutive breaths from an anosmic participant. Peaks identified by the software circled in red. Here total breath count is 4 and number of inhalation peaks is also 4. D Four consecutive breaths from a normosmic participant. Peaks identified by the software circled in red. Here total breath count is also 4 yet the number of inhalation peaks is 9. Samples from all participants, 21 anosmics and 31 normosmics, are depicted in Supplementary Fig. 1. E Breaths per minute (BPM) during sleep and wake in normosmia (green) and anosmia (orange), plotted along the unit-slope line (dotted line x = y), with raincloud plots and probability density. An rmANOVA uncovered a significant effect for Arousal (F1,50 = 54.8, p < 0.001, η2 = 0.16; Normosmics sleep vs. wake: t30 = 5.48, d’ = 0.99, p < 0.001. Anosmics sleep vs. wake: t20 = 4.98, d’ = 1.1, p < 0.001), but no effect for Sense of Smell (F1,50 = 2.5, p = 0.12), nor interaction (F1,50 = 0.49, p = 0.49). F Inhalation peaks per minute (IPPM) during sleep and wake in normosmia (green) and anosmia (orange), plotted along the unit-slope line (dotted line x = y), with raincloud plots and probability density. An rmANOVA uncovered a significant effect for Arousal (F1,50 = 118, p < 0.001, η2 = 0.37), a significant effect for Sense of Smell (F1,50 = 6.3, p = 0.016, η2 = 0.05), and a significant interaction (F1,50 = 4.7, p = 0.03, η2 = 0.015). Post hoc analysis revealed significantly increased frequency of nasal inhalation peaks in normosmics during wake (t50 = 3, p = 0.004, d’ = 0.84) but not during sleep (Normosmics vs. anosmics: t50 = 1.2, p = 0.23). For panels C and D, the area for each separated inhale colored with different arbitrary color, and the nasal airflow is given in arbitrary units. For panels E and F, each circle is the mean of a participant, bars are the group mean, lines are the standard error of the mean and group size is anosmia n = 21, normosmia n = 31. The boxplots in these panels represent data distribution, with the box extending from the first to the third quartile and a solid line indicating the median. The whiskers extend to the furthest data points that are within 1.5 times the interquartile range.
