Determining Ultrasonic Vocalization Preferences in Mice using a Two-choice Playback Test

Asaba, Akari; Kato, Masahiro; Koshida, Nobuyoshi; Kikusui, Takefumi

doi:10.3791/53074

Cited by 12 publications

(16 citation statements)

References 33 publications

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“…Few studies have explored the receiver's side 30 37 38 . Playback and discrimination protocols provide a simple test to study the receiver's side, such as the one also recently described by Asaba, Kato, et al 39 . In that study, the authors used a two-choice test box separated with acoustic foam instead of the Y-maze box described here.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Eliciting and Analyzing Male Mouse Ultrasonic Vocalization (USV) Songs

Chabout

Jones-Macopson

Jarvis

2017

JoVE

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Mice produce ultrasonic vocalizations (USVs) in a variety of social contexts throughout development and adulthood. These USVs are used for mother-pup retrieval1, juvenile interactions2, opposite and same sex interactions345, and territorial interactions6. For decades, the USVs have been used by investigators as proxies to study neuropsychiatric and developmental or behavioral disorders789, and more recently to understand mechanisms and evolution of vocal communication among vertebrates10. Within the sexual interactions, adult male mice produce USV songs, which have some features similar to courtship songs of songbirds11. The use of such multisyllabic repertoires can increase potential flexibility and information they carry, as they can be varied in how elements are organized and recombined, namely syntax. In this protocol a reliable method to elicit USV songs from male mice in various social contexts, such as exposure to fresh female urine, anesthetized animals, and estrus females is described. This includes conditions to induce a large amount of syllables from the mice. We reduce recording of ambient noises with inexpensive sound chambers, and present a quantification method to automatically detect, classify and analyze the USVs. The latter includes evaluation of call-rate, vocal repertoire, acoustic parameters, and syntax. Various approaches and insight on using playbacks to study an animal's preference for specific song types are described. These methods were used to describe acoustic and syntax changes across different contexts in male mice, and song preferences in female mice.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Eliciting and Analyzing Male Mouse Ultrasonic Vocalization (USV) Songs

Chabout

Jones-Macopson

Jarvis

2017

JoVE

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“…The procedures for USV measurement were performed, as described previously (Asaba et al, 2015;Asaba et al, 2014).…”

Section: Measurement Of Usvsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Testosterone regulates the emission of ultrasonic vocalizations and mounting behavior during different developmental periods in mice

Kikusui

Shima

Sonobe

et al. 2020

Developmental Psychobiology

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Testosterone masculinizes the brain and bodily functions and promotes the development of male characteristics. In the brain, there is a critical period during which testosterone acts on neural circuits to stimulate the development of male-type neural characteristics.Early exposure to testosterone masculinizes reproductive, cognitive, emotional, and neurophysiological functions, such as stress responses (McCarthy & Arnold, 2011). In the developing mammalian brain, testosterone can either be metabolized to estrogen via aromatase, dihydrotestosterone (DHT) via 5α-reductase, or remain unmetabolized. Testosterone and DHT act through a single androgen receptor (AR), while estrogen acts through two types of estrogen receptors (ERα and ERβ) (McCarthy & Arnold, 2011). The relative

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“…These vocalizations are strongly modulated on different levels by a variety of contextual determinants, such as age, genetic background, behavioural state and to a lesser extent by sex 5 . Mice utilize these USVs during social interactions and in distress to mediate essential behaviours 6 – 12 . Recently, it has been shown that playback of different types of USVs can also elicit different responses in the recipient mouse 13 .…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

High-precision spatial localization of mouse vocalizations during social interaction

Heckman

Proville

Heckman

et al. 2017

Sci Rep

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Mice display a wide repertoire of vocalizations that varies with age, sex, and context. Especially during courtship, mice emit ultrasonic vocalizations (USVs) of high complexity, whose detailed structure is poorly understood. As animals of both sexes vocalize, the study of social vocalizations requires attributing single USVs to individuals. The state-of-the-art in sound localization for USVs allows spatial localization at centimeter resolution, however, animals interact at closer ranges, involving tactile, snout-snout exploration. Hence, improved algorithms are required to reliably assign USVs. We develop multiple solutions to USV localization, and derive an analytical solution for arbitrary vertical microphone positions. The algorithms are compared on wideband acoustic noise and single mouse vocalizations, and applied to social interactions with optically tracked mouse positions. A novel, (frequency) envelope weighted generalised cross-correlation outperforms classical cross-correlation techniques. It achieves a median error of ~1.4 mm for noise and ~4–8.5 mm for vocalizations. Using this algorithms in combination with a level criterion, we can improve the assignment for interacting mice. We report significant differences in mean USV properties between CBA mice of different sexes during social interaction. Hence, the improved USV attribution to individuals lays the basis for a deeper understanding of social vocalizations, in particular sequences of USVs.

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Determining Ultrasonic Vocalization Preferences in Mice using a Two-choice Playback Test

Cited by 12 publications

References 33 publications

Eliciting and Analyzing Male Mouse Ultrasonic Vocalization (USV) Songs

Eliciting and Analyzing Male Mouse Ultrasonic Vocalization (USV) Songs

Testosterone regulates the emission of ultrasonic vocalizations and mounting behavior during different developmental periods in mice

High-precision spatial localization of mouse vocalizations during social interaction

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