Can you roll your tongue? The question of many childhood meet-ups followed by giggles and poked out rolled and un-rolled tongues. The belief that the ability relies solely on your genes holds strong into adulthood for many people. It turns out that some people can learn to roll their tongues. Over 60 years ago, a Japanese researcher called Komai found that just over half of 6-7 year olds can curl up their tongues, but this rose to three quarters in 12 year olds, suggesting that some people learn the ability between these ages. There is a genetic element though, if your parents can roll their tongues, you are much more likely to be able to. But tongue rolling has previously been attributed to one gene with two alleles, with rolling being completely dominant to not rolling. However, if this was true, then if both of your parents were unable to roll their tongues, you shouldnt be able to either. Studies show that this just isnt the case, with about a third of the offspring from non-rolling parents able to roll their tongues! The trait is obviously much more complicated than high school genetics classes have led us to believe. Perhaps this is due in part to more complicated genetics, but the occurrence of one rolling and one non-rolling identical twins suggests that environmental influences have a part to play too.
