Great apes like to spin themselves dizzy, a lot like children do, research shows

Children love to spin. Whether it is by whirling around on their feet, whipping around on a tyre swing, or tumbling down a grassy hill, they revel in the drunken effects of dizziness that follow. As humans mature, they might outgrow spinning on the playground, but find other ways to alter their senses – dancing, skating, roller coasters, and for some of them, psychoactive drugs.

It turns out humans are not the only primate with a desire to spin ourselves and stimulate our senses. In a recent study, my co-author Adriano Lameira and I found some other primates like to do this too. The great apes – which include chimpanzees, bonobos, gorillas, and orangutans, in addition to humans – have a more complex brain than other primates and share a similar neurophysiology. Our findings suggest that they also share our desire to induce altered states of perception. This may even have played a role in the evolution of the human mind.

In 2011, and then again in 2016, a captive gorilla named Zola went viral for his flair for “breakdancing” – the spinning, playful displays that he liked to perform while splashing around in water. These videos made me wonder about the spinning behaviour of apes more generally.