Do we process visual data at the speed of light?

Question

I am interested in defining pychosocial interactions in terms of the properties of light. I have an inkling that we experience some sort of time warp if the theory of relativity applies in human experience/consciousness.

Answer 1

No. Although there are electrical impulses involved in processing visual data, this process does not occur in a vacuum (and there are also some chemical processes at work in the broder sense of processing). In this way, the process of visual data (depending on what you mean by process) depends on the mechanism of the eye itself, the optic nerve, the visual cortex, etc.

Ultimately the parietal lobe, temporal lobe, cerebral cortex, and nearly every other region of the brain becomes involved on some level as data is processed, associations are made, memories are triggered, actions are determined, etc. None of this happens at the speed of light, as it is limited by the physical properties of the entire nervous system.

See the following article on "Anatomy of Vision" for a more complete description of the processing of visual data.

Answer 2

No, the processing speed is limited to the speed in the nerves and the brain