This preprint develops an effective non-Markovian framework for neural excitability and metabolic reset inspired by the MetaTime architecture, while remaining deliberately conservative in its physical claims. The manuscript does not attempt to replace standard Hodgkin–Huxley electrophysiology; instead, it proposes that neural signaling may include an additional latent-state dynamics characterized by a finite relaxation time τm\tau_mτm, which manifests as history-dependent refractory behavior and latency-constrained state reset. Within this effective theory, the neuronal refractory period is modeled as the sum of conventional channel-kinetic recovery and a residual latency contribution associated with incomplete relaxation of an internal state variable. The framework introduces a neural Deborah number to distinguish adiabatic from lag-dominated regimes, and it reformulates part of the brain’s metabolic burden as the thermodynamic cost of repeated information reset, constrained by a Landauer-type lower bound. The paper develops quantitative predictions for refractory residuals, metabolic scaling, history dependence, and synchronization-sensitive recovery, together with an explicit falsification protocol. This work is presented as a referee-oriented theoretical preprint in biophysics and theoretical neuroscience. Its main purpose is to test whether an effective causal-memory sector is required in addition to standard electrophysiological descriptions.