Female mice exhibit both sexual and social partner preferences for vocalizing males

Nomoto, Kensaku; Ikumi, Mayu; Otsuka, Monami; Asaba, Akari; Kato, Masahiro; Koshida, Nobuyoshi; Mogi, Kazutaka; Kikusui, Takefumi

doi:10.1111/1749-4877.12357

Cited by 26 publications

(22 citation statements)

References 30 publications

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“…Ultrasonic vocalizations are communicative behaviors emitted by rodents in various occasions including during mating, aggressive play, and in the presence of predators [42][43][44]. Neonatal vocalizations which are commonly assessed by separating pups from their mother to elicit stress are proposed to characterize communication deficits, a pattern that is present in numerous neurodevelopmental disorders including Down Syndrome [45] and ASD [46,47].…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Alteration in the time and/or mode of delivery differentially modulates early development in mice

2020

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Delivery is a complex biological process involving hormonal and mechanical stimuli that together condition the survival and development of the fetus out of the womb. Accordingly, changes in the time or way of being born are associated with an alteration of fundamental biological functions and hypothesized to promote the emergence of neurodevelopmental disorders. Hence, the steadily rise in preterm birth and cesarean section (CS) delivery rates over the past years has become a worldwide health concern. In our previous work, we reported that even though no long-term autistic-like deficits were observed, mice born preterm by CS presented early transient neuronal and communicative defects. However, understanding if these alterations were due to an early birth combined with CS delivery, or if prematurity solely could lead to a similar outcome remained to be evaluated. Using mice born either at term or preterm by vaginal or CS delivery, we assessed early life ultrasonic vocalizations and the onset of eye opening. We report that alterations in communicative behaviors are finely attuned and specifically affected either by preterm birth or by the association between CS delivery and preterm birth in mice, while delayed onset of eye opening is due to prematurity. Moreover, our work further underlies a gender-dependent vulnerability to changes in the time and/or way of being born with distinct outcomes observed in males and females. Thus, our results shed light on the intricacy of birth alterations and might further explain the disparities reported in epidemiological studies.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Alteration in the time and/or mode of delivery differentially modulates early development in mice

2020

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“…These courtship songs are attractive to sexually receptive females 6 , who respond to song playback with approach behaviour [7][8][9][10][11][12] . Male songs facilitate copulatory success 13 and are thought to serve as fitness displays 14,15 .…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Following a previously published protocol 5 , we obtained audio recordings of ultrasonic vocalizations emitted by males in response to the presentation of mixtures of urine samples collected from conspecific females in estrus. This paradigm was deemed optimal for generating stimuli to use in ethologically-inspired playback experiments, as vocalizations emitted in this context are emitted by solitary males and reflect long-range acoustic "courtship" displays with the purpose of attracting a female 13,21,22 . The vocal patterns emitted in this context consisted of sequences of individual frequency-modulated calls (see example Fig.…”

Section: Acoustic Characteristics Of Vocal Sequences Emitted By Male mentioning

confidence: 99%

Courtship behaviour reveals temporal regularity is a critical social cue in mouse communication

Perrodin

Verzat

Bendor

2020

Preprint

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While animals navigating the real world face a barrage of complex sensory input, their brains have evolved to perceptually compress multidimensional information by selectively extracting the features relevant for survival. For instance, communication signals supporting social interactions in several mammalian species consist of acoustically complex sequences of vocalizations, however little is known about what information listeners extract from such timevarying sensory streams. Here, we utilize female mice's natural behavioural response to male courtship songs to evaluate the relevant acoustic dimensions used in their social decisions. We found that females were highly sensitive to disruptions of song temporal regularity, and preferentially approached playbacks of intact male songs over rhythmically irregular versions of the songs. In contrast, female behaviour was invariant to manipulations affecting the songs' sequential organization, or the spectrotemporal structure of individual syllables. The results reveal temporal regularity as a key acoustic cue extracted by mammalian listeners from complex vocal sequences during goal-directed social behaviour.

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“…One male C57BL/6 mouse and one male BALB/c mouse were used for recording USVs. To promote vocalizations, we used one female C57BL/6 mouse and one female BALB/c mouse, which were ovariectomized and devocalized [ 1 , 11 , 12 ], and allowed at least two weeks for recovery. Sexual receptivity was induced by injecting 17-β estradiol in corn oil (0.05 ml at a concentration of 0.4 mg/ml) 48 and 24 h prior to the USV recording session, and progesterone in corn oil (0.03 ml at a concentration of 10 mg/ml) four hours before the USV recording session.…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Male mice emit ultrasonic vocalizations (USVs) in response to the presence of female mice and their urine [13,18]. Male USVs attract female mice [2,5,11,15] and enhance female reproductive functions [2]. Thus, the USVs of male mice are thought to serve as a courtship song.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Female C57BL/6 and BALB/c mice differently use the acoustic features of male ultrasonic vocalizations for social preferences

et al. 2020

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Male mice emit ultrasonic vocalizations (USVs) in response to the presence of female mice and their urine. Male USVs attract females, enhancing female reproductive functions, and are thus considered as the courtship song. Previous studies have shown that female mice exhibit disassortative social preferences for male USVs. However, it remains unclear what acoustic features female mice use for the development of these preferences. To address this, we examined social preferences of female C57BL/6 and BALB/c mice using the three-chamber preference test using recorded male USVs. To dissociate the peak frequencies of these USVs from their syllable structure, we digitally manipulated the peak frequencies accordingly. We found that female mice preferred USVs that were dissimilar to those of their own strain. We also observed that, while female C57BL/6 mice were sensitive to changes in the syllable structure and the peak frequency, female BALB/c mice were sensitive to differences in the syllable structure. Our results demonstrate that female C57BL/6 and BALB/c mice differently use the acoustic features such as the peak frequency and the syllable structure for exhibiting disassortative social preferences.

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Female mice exhibit both sexual and social partner preferences for vocalizing males

Cited by 26 publications

References 30 publications

Alteration in the time and/or mode of delivery differentially modulates early development in mice

Alteration in the time and/or mode of delivery differentially modulates early development in mice

Courtship behaviour reveals temporal regularity is a critical social cue in mouse communication

Female C57BL/6 and BALB/c mice differently use the acoustic features of male ultrasonic vocalizations for social preferences

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