Great apes deliberately spin around in order to make themselves dizzy, researchers have discovered. Academics at the University of Warwick and the University of Birmingham suggest the findings could provide clues about humans evolving the desire to seek altered mental states and actively manipulate their mood and perception of reality.
The study is based on the observations of online videos in which great apes – gorillas, chimpanzees, bonobos and orangutans – spin to deliberately make themselves dizzy. Dr Adriano Lameira, associate professor of psychology at the University of Warwick who co-led the study, said: “Every culture has found a way of evading reality through dedicated and special rituals, practices or ceremonies.
“This human trait of seeking altered states is so universal, historically and culturally, that it raises the intriguing possibility that this is something that has been potentially inherited from our evolutionary ancestors. If this was indeed the case, it would carry huge consequences on how we think about modern human cognition capacities and emotional needs.”
The research team came across a viral video of a male gorilla spinning in a pool, and continued researching on YouTube. They found more videos of gorillas, chimpanzees, bonobos and orangutans all spinning.
Forty online videos were analysed, and researchers found that on average the primates revolved 5.5 times per episode of spinning, with the average speed 1.5 revolutions per second. The animals did this on average three times, the scientists found.
The spinning speeds were compared and the study found that the animals can spin while holding on a rope as fast as professional human dancers and circus artists, as well as Dervish muslims who take part in whirling ceremonies in order to achieve a spiritual trance. Dr Lameira added: “Spinning alters our state of consciousness, it messes up with our body-mind responsiveness and coordination, which make us feel sick, lightheaded, and even elated as in the case of children playing in merry-go-rounds, spinner-wheels and carousels.”
He continued: “If all great apes seek dizziness, then our ancestors are also highly likely to have done so. We asked ourselves what role these behaviours play when it comes to the origins of the human mind.
“The apes were doing this purposefully, almost as if they were dancing – a known mechanism in humans that universally facilitates mood regulation, social bonding and heightens the senses and is based on rotation movements. The parallel between what the apes were doing and what humans do was beyond coincidental.”
Subscribe here for the latest news where you live
For more stories from where you live, visit InYourArea.
