Have you ever played a merry-go-round game? It’s a game where you spin deliberately? I am sure you did, that used to be everyone’s favourite game growing up. What if I tell you that it’s not only your favourite game but also your ancestors?

You heard right the apes who we evolved from.

Some viral videos showing the spin-around game were recreated by apes until they felt dizzy.

Scholars from the University of Warwick and the University of Birmingham discovered a very mesmerizing pattern while analysing some online videos of apes- gorillas, research proposal writing sheffield bonobos, and orangutans. The video shows apes whirling, holding a branch until they start to feel dizzy. Which is relatively the same as humans.

Relationship between humans and apes?

According to a report by the American Museum of Natural history Humans’ and apes’ DNA is analogous around 99%.

Monkeys, apes, and lemurs are our relatives more than 96% of genetics are parallel.

We share some of the most familiar traits like intricate social groups, infrequent offspring mostly one at a time, enormous brains (compared to our body size ), a vision that is more activated than smell, hands for the usage, sluggish growth, and usually long life.

The study and our urge to alter our moods

The base research started with the viral video of an ape spinning while holding a creeper. This video was on YouTube. The researcher started to search for more videos they found more than 40 videos on YouTube where some apes, gorillas, research proposal writing sheffield bonobos and orangutans were spinning until they felt dizzy.

They were spinning quite fast around 5.5 times per second. They’re rotated at the speed of 1.5 per second. They were at least doing the whole ritual more than 3 times. The experts claimed that they were as fast as the human dancer or circus artists spin.  Mostly dancers hold the rope or something like rope and the apes were holding creepers, branches, etc.

Dr. Marcus who co-led the investigation proclaimed that they also tried to spin at the same rate as apes and found that it was difficult to pursue. Although those videos of apes indicate that apes also become dizzy and their balance was compromised, most likely to fall. However, they keep spinning until the state of mind enters the world of dizziness.

Dr. Adriano Lameira, a professor at the University of Warwick commented that humans tend to alter their reality quite frequently as apes were doing. Some cultural or ritual, ceremonies are there historically and culturally to alter our experience. If we take a simple example of the consumption of alcohol or drugs is typical all around the world. research proposal writing sheffield When we spin we lose control so our brain feels dizzy, light, and elevated. That’s the feeling of altering and losing all sense that makes humans as well as apes delighted. If we look into the matter carefully we can draw the line that perhaps our ancestors do not have such elements ( alcohol and drugs ) it could be the spinning game that elevated their consciousness and the same goes for our primitive cousins.

Reference

Being friendly but not too friendly helps sparrows breed successfully. (2023, March 9). Imperial News. https://www.imperial.ac.uk/news/242577/being-friendly-friendly-helps-sparrows-breed/

University of Birmingham. (2023, March 16). Dizzy apes give clues on human drive for mind-altering experiences. https://www.birmingham.ac.uk/news/2023/dizzy-apes-give-clues-on-human-drive-for-mind-altering-

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