Some interesting facts about tongue rolling trait in humans

Present study was conducted to determine the prevalence of tongue rolling trait in the population of district sargodha,pakistan. we also tested the hypothesis that tongue rolling is not genetically controlled but people learn this trait with age and experience. to record the prevalence of rollers and non rollers,data of 1734 individuals (682 males and 1052 females) was collected. to study the effect of age and experience on tongue rolling,data of school students of two different age categories was collected. observed frequencies of roller males and females were 68.32% and 45.82%,respectively. significantly higher number of roller males was recorded in age category b (12-13 years) compared to age category a (7-9 years). however,difference was non-significant in the two age categories for females. we also recorded 19 % roller offspring from families in which both parents were non rollers. results of the study indicate that tongue rolling is a complex trait which might involve non-genetic influence or may be controlled by multiple genes. copyright 2014 zoological society of pakistan.