That is quite true.
I don’t see how the OP implies an “ON/OFF state” … ?? The perception of hope and threat, PHT, is not a binary value, not a one or zero. PHT can range from infinitesimal to as close to infinite as the physical substrate allows, as either hope or threat values, positive or negative values. The only distinction from physics is that the mind, and thus PHT, is dependent upon the underlying physics whereas the physics is only dependent upon the underlying logic.
Back to the question:
The concept of MCR is still valid but in physics it occurs due to maximum affect rate that is logically possible whereas in psychology it occurs due to maximum perception rate physically possible.
Speed of Propagation
Light propagates at the speed that it does because it is logically impossible for anything to affect anything else at a faster rate than what we refer to as “the speed of light”. The speed of PHT is a little different because its propagation rate depends upon how quickly the physical substratum can be affected, how quickly neurons respond. Faster neurons (electric wires or optic fiber) would allow for any associated perception to change faster.
And you raised a good point in that perception is not merely due to neurological response, but also mental “filtering” of noise and categorizing neurological pulses into perception information. Perception cannot change until some part of the mind has deduced the relevance of the information being sensed, relating it to hope or threat, aka “filtered out the noise”.
Inertia and Impedance
So all of that builds up to the concept of PHT Maximum Change Rate, PHT-MCR, and PHT-Inertia. And although there is an inertia in the mind, the more obvious and significant effects to observe are those that occur socially - how quickly does a change of mind propagate through society. In physics, psychology and sociology, any restriction or inhibition to flow is called “impedance”. And that of course, is directly related to how fast a single mind changes and then relays that change to another - PHT social propagation and Socio-chemistry; propaganda, social construct, and population control. But before getting into those more socially relevant concerns … back to the PHT flow within the mind.
The human mind and brain doesn’t really function in a digital manner like computers despite being constructed of binary neurons and despite the analogy of having hardware (“wetware”) and software (“mind”). When billions of neurons are interconnected and capable of perception dependent altering of their connection pathways, the brain stops looking like anything associated with binary functions and instead looks far more like a material allowing waves of influence, physical affectance, to propagate through it along restricted corridors - a massive “neural network”, a “brain”. And exactly how those waves of influence propagate is what forms the mind, which in turn reflects back some degree of influence on exactly how those waves will propagate next time - “learning”. Perception affects perception, often causing blindness or lust.
These neurologically based waves within the brain are not as spherically radiating as their subatomic cousins. The physiology of the brain guides affectance waves through corridors that both limit and accumulate their subtle affects such as to form what we call “intelligent response”. Socially this is analogous to some information passed to a neighbor, other information passed to the police, other to news media, and other to church, while much overlaps and goes to any or all combinations.
Mass and Memory
When these waves of affect are associated with good or bad, they become waves of hope or threat, positive or negative. Such waves interact with other concurrent waves often “reflecting” through channels created by both physiology and memory. And when they overlap, they produce a point of greater strength, often sufficient enough to cause a physiological change, a “memory engram” and a spec of not-so-changable pebble in a corridor, an impediment. The next time a wave passes through that corridor, a small reflection occurs as the wave stumbles over that bit of rubble. The impediment of normal flow, “increased impedance”, reflects some of the wave in other directions, much like a kink in a electronic coax cable feeding a television or a spec of dirt in a microwave channel. If for any reason the free flow along a corridor changes, it is referred to as an “impedance mismatch”. Such impedance mismatching is what causes light and sounds to reflect off of physical objects to affect eyes and ears.
That sensory reflection begins its own wave referred to as “recall” as it denotes that at some time, one sensory wave was associated with another sensory wave. Relatively simple physiological deduction reveals which other sensory wave must have been happening at the same time for there to be a pebble in that particular location and by thus memory associations are formed.
That little pebble of memory is a type of mass-particle formed by waves of PHT interacting such as to create a physical change in the free flow of perception, possibly “charged” with hope or threat value. Once something bad (negative) has been associated with a former hope (positive), it is more difficult to maintain that perception of hope. The persons perception of hope has been more “neutralized”. That is why anti-Christians are always promoting evil associations with Christianity - to reduce hope in Christianity. The Media takes full advantage of this effect so as to promote engram programming within the population, once called “product placement” and “mass hypnosis”, used to alter the opinions of consumers and voters into a preferred direction.
Trauma and Fear
When sufficient strength of PHT wave interaction occurs, it is not a simple and single engram that gets produced, but rather a mass of engrams form a very rigid block to perception and strong responses to any possibility of associated concerns - from drama to Trauma. Trauma events then act a bit like a cancer in the mind and brain, growing and spreading impediments to perception, a black-hole consuming the perception and mind - Fear.
Persistent fears form insecurities. Such was the incentive for producing the “fear films” of the 1970’s. And from such strong insecurities within, social behavior is greatly modified as fear amplifies both perception of threats and perception of hopes. The mind becomes over-reactive, obsessed, and/or paranoid, lusting for anything entertaining and dreading the slightest inconvenience. Sound familiar?