Female urine-induced male mice ultrasonic vocalizations, but not scent-marking, is modulated by social experience

Abstract

Despite the evidence for a communicative function of rodent scent marks and ultrasonic vocalizations, relatively little is known about the impact of social factors on these two forms of communication. Here, we tested the effects of two important social factors, prior exposure to a female and freshness of female urine, on male scent marks and ultrasonic vocalizations elicited by female urine. We also asked whether a recently reported strain difference between the highly social strain C57BL/6J (B6) and the mouse model of autism BTBR T+tf/J (BTBR) herein is specifically seen in response to female urine or also detectable in response to male urine traces. Results show that the emission of female urine-elicited ultrasonic vocalizations was dependent on previous female experience, while scent-marking behavior was not affected. A positive correlation was detected between scent-marking behavior and ultrasonic calling in the most biologically relevant context, male mice exposed to fresh female urine after female experience. Correlations were less prominent or missing in less biologically relevant contexts, e.g. in male mice exposed to fresh female urine without previous female experience, indicating that previous female experience is affecting both the emission of female urine-elicited ultrasonic vocalizations and the correlation between olfactory and acoustic communication. The strain difference in scent-marking behavior and ultrasonic calling between B6 and BTBR appears to be specific to female urine-elicited behavior as it was not seen in response to male urine traces, highlighting the relevance of the social context in which mouse communication is evaluated.

Translational Mouse Models of Autism: Advancing Toward Pharmacological Therapeutics

“…Of these, BTBR has been the most extensively characterized and well-replicated for ASD-related behaviors. In addition to abnormal sociability and repetitive behaviors, BTBR mice deposit fewer scent marks and emit fewer ultrasonic vocalizations (USVs) during social interactions, display an unusual repertoire of call categories during their USVs, exhibit a lower number of complex calls (Scattoni et al 2008; Roullet et al 2010; Scattoni et al 2010), and are impaired on social transmission of food preference (McFarlane et al 2008). These inbred strains add to the genetic mouse models, along with the rat, vole, and non-human primate models of ASD, which are available to evaluate therapeutics.…”

“…Fresh female urine and other social odors are similarly effective in eliciting USVs from adult male mice (Nyby et al 1977; Whitney and Nyby 1979; Byatt and Nyby 1986; Holy and Guo 2005; Hoffmann et al 2009; Malkesman et al 2010; Roullet et al 2011; Wohr et al 2011b). Playback studies indicate that female mice prefer male USVs over pup USVs, artificial control sounds, or silence (Hammerschmidt et al 2009; Shepard and Liu 2011) and prefer vocalizing males over devocalized males (Pomerantz et al 1983), suggesting that male USVs may have a role in facilitating courtship.…”

Inflammatory profiles in the BTBR mouse: How relevant are they to autism spectrum disorders?

“…Given that olfactory cues are the predominant sensory modality used for exploring social and environmental stimuli in mice, scent-marking behavior may provide a more robust behavioral measure for identifying deficits in social communication. Interestingly, the BTBR mouse displays fewer scent marking behaviors in response to a social stimulus compared to the more social C57BL/6J mouse, and these reductions are accompanied by fewer vocalizations emitted in response to the scent of female-urine (Roullet et al, 2011; Wohr et al, 2011). Together, reductions in social motivation and social approach along with reduced scent marking and altered vocalizations highlight the strong face validity the BTBR mouse holds for modeling the social communication deficits that are at the core of the ASD diagnosis.…”

Autoimmune Disorder and Autism

“…Anatomically BTBR mice get total absence of the corpus callosum, and severely reduced hippocampal commissure, which are also attributed to their phenotypes [259][260][261][262]. Although primarily used as type 2 diabetes model [263][264][265][266][267][268] and phenylketonuria (PKU) model [269][270][271][272][273][274], BTBR mice were recently found to be a promising mice model for autism research because they exhibited the three core symptoms for diagnosing autism [275][276][277][278][279][280][281][282]. Using this strain, several groups have begun to explore the pathogenesis of autism.…”