VCML Paper 123: The Gate Calibration Axis -- A Transdiagnostic Dimensional Framework for Psychiatric Classification Grounded in Inhibitory Threshold Architecture

Current psychiatric classification is organized primarily around symptom clusters (DSM/ICD). The NIMH Research Domain Criteria (RDoC) project has proposed complementing this with mechanism-based dimensional axes, including inhibitory control as a core domain. We provide a theoretical framework for one such axis, grounded in the Viability-Constrained Memory Lattice (VCML) and in well-established neuroscience of GABAergic inhibitory interneuron networks. The axis runs from undergated (inhibitory tone insufficient, excitation propagates without threshold) to overgated (inhibitory tone excessive, reward and social signals cannot cross threshold) with gate instability (oscillating threshold) in the middle. Many apparently distinct psychiatric conditions represent different positions on this single axis, or different channel-specific expressions of the same underlying calibration error. The correct measurement instrument for gate calibration is not a trait inventory (which measures content averages) but a stability metric across timescales: a Binder-cumulant-style assessment of behavioral coherence. Apparent treatment resistance is often a consequence of axis-misidentification: treating an overgated system with interventions appropriate for undergating, or vice versa. This framework is offered as a complement to, not a replacement of, existing diagnostic systems. Scope notice: theoretical framework only, no clinical recommendations.