NAPOT Open-Data Component Gate: What an Adverse Receiver-Relative Phase Result Permits, Blocks, and Requires Next

This concise research-program update interprets a previously executed open-data test of one proposed NAPOT component. An unmasked receiver-relative timing, amplitude, duration, and spatial-direction feature set failed to improve short-horizon visual-cortex prediction beyond a capacity-matched raw-signal model in all 14 analyzed development sessions. The paper fits no new model, analyzes no new dataset, preserves the adverse result, discloses the parent-protocol phase-quality-mask discrepancy, distinguishes within-model control sensitivity from support for the larger theory, and defines the redesign and holdout rules required for the next test.