How does brain perceive time dilation due to gravity?

Question

Einstein's General Relativity says gravity warps spacetime. Consider a hypothetical scenario:

A person travels into space from Earth.
He landed on a different planet in some far off galaxy where time runs slower than Earth. 1 hour on that planet is about 7 years on Earth. The person does not know anything about time dilation or relativity, so he's not aware that gravity slowed down the time.

I was wondering how that person's mind will perceive time. Does the brain think that lot of time has passed but in reality only 1 hour passed? Or is it like, the brain also slows down and adapts to time dilation?

Claudio Saspinski · Answer

Our brain is a bad device to measure time. Depending on several conditions we feel that time passes slowly or fast. And it happens in a gravity well or not.
That is why clocks were invented, and small differences as that caused by gravitational wells need very precise clocks to be detected.

niels nielsen · Answer

All physical processes will slow down in that gravity well; all clocks will run slow. Since the brain contains physical processes (chemical reactions, electrical impulses, etc.) these will run slow too and for this reason, a person in that gravity well who looks at their wristwatch will not be able to detect the fact that it is running slow, because their brain is too.

Answered by niels nielsen on December 15, 2021

DHDE · Answer

This is a common confusion thinking that there is such thing as a "real" amount of time.
Time literally runs slower.
The brain will think that an hour has passed, and an hour will have passed at that location.
Saying "in reality 7 years passed" is incorrect. "7 years passed on Earth" would be correct.

How does brain perceive time dilation due to gravity?

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