When Time Stops: Inside the Mind's Clock

Abstract

When Time Stops: Inside the Mind’s Clock is a theoretical preprint monograph exploring how subjective time perception may relate to brain dynamics, informational complexity, and cytoskeletal processes. The work introduces the Scalar Clock Model, in which subjective duration is represented by a scalar variable (φ) whose accumulation rate may be influenced by large-scale neural activity and cellular coherence. The framework proposes that psychedelic compounds such as N,N-dimethyltryptamine (DMT) can serve as experimental probes by modulating cortical entropy (via 5-HT2A receptor activation) and intracellular organization (via sigma-1 receptor pathways). The monograph integrates current findings in psychedelic neuroscience, neural entropy, and predictive processing with a speculative but biologically grounded model of temporal experience. Emphasis is placed on testable predictions, including EEG/MEG complexity measures, interval timing tasks, and spectroscopic investigation of microtubule dynamics. This document is a theoretical research preprint intended to stimulate empirical research and interdisciplinary discussion. All mechanisms are presented as hypotheses requiring experimental validation.