What we're working on.

A six-step model of how a dream gets generated, building on Hobson and McCarley's Activation-Synthesis theory. We argue that the pontine trigger sets off a determinate cascade, with the thalamus as the branch point that sends the sensory and affective streams of a dream down parallel routes, rather than the cortex making sense of random noise after the fact. Because the claim is about the direction and order of information flow, activation mapping alone cannot settle it.

Team

Cristobal Sanchez, Pranathi Raghavendra, Jin-Rou (Zoey) Chen, Millan Hamilton

Focus

Six-step cascade stated formally · Three points of divergence from the classical account identified · Submitted for publication, targeting end of October 2026 · Companion empirical study on directed influence in design

A one-month, interview-based behavioral companion to the Sanchez-Raghavendra-Chen model. If the hippocampus binds emotionally consolidated material into dream content, as our cascade claims, then emotionally salient waking experience should leave a measurable trace in the emotional tone of later dreams. We test that with induced emotion (normed film clips) and with naturally occurring life events, kept in separate analytic tracks.

Team

Cristobal Sanchez, Pranathi Raghavendra, Jin-Rou (Zoey) Chen, Millan Hamilton

Focus

Two tracks: experimental (induced emotion) and naturalistic (real-world events) · Hall–Van de Castle emotion coding by blind, independent coders · Prepared for IRB review with the Cerritos College Psychology Department · Hypotheses and analysis plan pre-registered before data collection

A thin, breathable skin patch that records brain activity (EEG), heart rhythm (ECG), and electrodermal activity (EDA) from one discreet site behind the ear and along the upper neck. This R&D phase settles the anatomical, materials, and computational questions that have to be answered before a prototype can be built, with REM sleep tracking and more comfortable clinical sleep studies as the long-term goal.

Team

Cristobal Sanchez, Pranathi Raghavendra, Jin-Rou (Zoey) Chen, Millan Hamilton

Focus

Aim 1: electrode layout grounded in retroauricular–cervical anatomy · Aim 2: breathable, skin-safe substrates, electrodes, and adhesives · Aim 3: open-source signal-quality and sleep-staging pipeline · 18-month R&D phase ending in a prototype design specification