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The Somnogenesis System: A Proposed Biological System for Psychiatry
Ndiaye MO.. Preprints.org, 2026-10-08
Topic: Brain imaging, connectivity and assessment
For more than 150 years, since the idea that mental illness is rooted in the brain first emerged in the mid-1800s, psychiatry has searched for a reliable biological system to anchor its understanding of mental illness. This paper proposes a candidate for that system, starting from a striking observation. Almost every major psychiatric disorder shows three things together: REM sleep disturbance, altered default mode network (DMN) activity, and emotional dysregulation. The DMN is independently known to play a central role in emotional regulation and emotional memory, which is what suggests these three recurring findings are not coincidental but are manifestations of a single, previously unidentified biological system. The Somnogenesis System hypothesis states that the DMN's three principal hubs, the medial prefrontal cortex, the posterior cingulate cortex and precuneus, and the bilateral inferior parietal cortices, reactivate in a specific, ordered sequence during every REM period, and that this order is identical across the large majority of healthy individuals. Each hub carries an established, distinct function, and the evidence suggests these functions operate as a dependency chain rather than as independent, parallel contributions, consistent with the proposed existence of a genuine biological system rather than three regions coincidentally active at the same time. This hypothesis can be tested without collecting new data. A protocol is proposed using an existing public dataset of simultaneous EEG-fMRI sleep recordings, in which the three hubs are anatomically defined using a standardized cortical atlas and each REM period's activation order is estimated from onset latency rather than raw BOLD timing, controlling for each region's own hemodynamic response. Confirming the hypothesis would reframe REM sleep as the physiological interface of an underlying biological system, with implications for conditions including Parkinson's disease, dementia with Lewy bodies, multiple system atrophy, and major depressive disorder, where a disrupted system rather than a disrupted stage may be the more precise marker of pathology. The hypothesis is directly falsifiable, a failure to find a consistent, shared order would refute it outright.
Key findings
- Each hub carries an established, distinct function, and the evidence suggests these functions operate as a dependency chain rather than as independent, parallel contributions, consistent with the proposed existence of a genuine biological system rather than three regions coincidentally active at the same time.
- This hypothesis can be tested without collecting new data.
- A protocol is proposed using an existing public dataset of simultaneous EEG-fMRI sleep recordings, in which the three hubs are anatomically defined using a standardized cortical atlas and each REM period's activation order is estimated from onset latency rather than raw BOLD timing, controlling for each region's own hemodynamic response.
- Confirming the hypothesis would reframe REM sleep as the physiological interface of an underlying biological system, with implications for conditions including Parkinson's disease, dementia with Lewy bodies, multiple system atrophy, and major depressive disorder, where a disrupted system rather than a disrupted stage may be the more precise marker of pathology.
- The hypothesis is directly falsifiable, a failure to find a consistent, shared order would refute it outright.
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Study details
- Evidence strengthLow
How this study scored 16/100
Preprint — not yet peer-reviewed. It scored 21 on the same rubric, but non-peer-reviewed sources are capped at 16, so it shows as 16. Scored zero for study design, sample size, effect reported, studied in people and randomised / blinded because the record does not state it. We have no data on times cited, citations per year, impact for its field and year, cited by studies here, still being cited, senior author's track record, institution's track record and multi-centre collaboration, so those were left out: it earned 13 of the 62 points we could judge it on, which is 21 out of 100.
| Component | Points | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Journal tier | 2 / 10 | Tier 4 — not a peer-reviewed journal (Preprints.org) |
| Journal's citation record | 0 / 4 | Not a journal article, so the journal's record does not count |
| Study design | 0 / 12 | No study design recorded — scores zero, not guessed (not stated in the record — scored 0) |
| Strength of evidence | 1 / 5 | Rated “low” in our summary |
| Peer-review validation | 4 / 10 | Preprint — not yet peer-reviewed. Hosted on a preprint server. |
| How recent | 5 / 5 | 2026 — within 1 year(s) of the newest study here |
| Sample size | 0 / 4 | Participant count not stated — scores zero (not stated in the record — scored 0) |
| Effect reported | 0 / 3 | No effect size reported — scores zero (not stated in the record — scored 0) |
| Studied in people | 0 / 3 | Not stated whether this was studied in people — scores zero (not stated in the record — scored 0) |
| Randomised / blinded | 0 / 2 | No randomisation or blinding stated — scores zero (not stated in the record — scored 0) |
| Times cited | — / 7 | No citation count (not found in OpenAlex) — left out of this score |
| Citations per year | — / 5 | No citation count or no year — left out of this score |
| Impact for its field and year | — / 6 | No field-weighted citation impact (OpenAlex has none yet) — left out of this score |
| Cited by studies here | — / 6 | Not yet checked against this library's citation graph — left out of this score |
| Still being cited | — / 4 | No yearly citation counts — left out of this score |
| Senior author's track record | — / 4 | Senior author's record not available — left out of this score |
| Institution's track record | — / 3 | No institution listed in OpenAlex — left out of this score |
| Multi-centre collaboration | — / 3 | Institutions not listed — left out of this score |
| Indexed in PubMed | 1 / 2 | Not in PubMed, but has a DOI |
| Free to read | 0 / 2 | Behind a paywall — scores zero |
| Points | 13 / 62 | Scored on 12 of 20 parts. We have no data for the rest, so they are left out: 13 of the 62 points we could judge it on is 21 out of 100. |
| Total | 21 / 100 | Capped to 16 because this is not a peer-reviewed article. |
What each of these 20 components measures, and what this score is not →
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Cite this study APA, Vancouver, BibTeX · download .bib or .ris
Built from the record alzhub holds for this paper, not looked up. Volume, issue and page numbers are not held in the record. Check the citation against the original before you use it.
APA 7th
Ndiaye, M. O. (2026). The Somnogenesis System: A Proposed Biological System for Psychiatry. Preprints.org. https://doi.org/10.20944/preprints202610.0452.v1
Vancouver
Ndiaye MO. The Somnogenesis System: A Proposed Biological System for Psychiatry. Preprints.org. 2026. doi:10.20944/preprints202610.0452.v1.
BibTeX
@article{ndiaye2026-0a5d5bf8,
author = {Ndiaye, M. O.},
title = {{The Somnogenesis System: A Proposed Biological System for Psychiatry}},
journal = {Preprints.org},
year = {2026},
doi = {10.20944/preprints202610.0452.v1},
url = {https://doi.org/10.20944/preprints202610.0452.v1}
}
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