Characterization of Retronasal Airflow Patterns during Intraoral Fluid Discrimination Using a Low-Cost, Open-Source Biosensing Platform

Nasal airflow plays a critical role in olfactory processes, and both retronasal and orthonasal olfaction involve sensorimotor processes that facilitate the delivery of volatiles to the olfactory epithelium during odor sampling. Although methods are readily available for monitoring nasal airflow characteristics in laboratory and clinical settings, our understanding of odor sampling behavior would be enhanced by the development of inexpensive wearable technologies. Thus, we developed a method of monitoring nasal air pressure using a lightweight, open-source brain–computer interface (BCI) system and used the system to characterize patterns of retronasal airflow in human participants performing an oral fluid discrimination task. Participants exhibited relatively sustained low-rate retronasal airflow during sampling punctuated by higher-rate pulses often associated with deglutition. Although characteristics of post-deglutitive pulses did not differ across fluid conditions, the cumulative duration, probability, and estimated volume of retronasal airflow were greater during discrimination of perceptually similar solutions. These findings demonstrate the utility of a consumer-grade BCI system in assessing human olfactory behavior. They suggest further that sensorimotor processes regulate retronasal airflow to optimize the delivery of volatiles to the olfactory epithelium and that discrimination of perceptually similar oral fluids may be accomplished by varying the duration of optimal airflow rate.