Vocalization as an objective measure of shock-elicited social aggression in rats

Abstract

Intense vocalizations emitted by pairs of shocked rats were compared when physically separated by a transparent partition and when free to engage in social aggression. Greater vocalization occurred in the free-access condition and was positively correlated with visually observed attack scores in pairs that had prior experience with shock. A second experiment determined the influence of repeated fighting exposures upon the correlation between observed attack and vocalization. High positive correlations were obtained after initial sessions within a broad range of intermediate fighting.At high and low extremes of fighting, correlations were nonsignificant. The results are discussed with reference to restriction imposed upon variation of attack scores based upon standard criteria of observation.

A pair of electronic devices for detecting restricted-band audio and ultrasonic frequencies

“…Technician-level discussion of theory and practice in design of active band pass filters. ----------Electronic filters have found use in the behavioral sciences for detecting restricted-band audio-frequency and ultrasonic animal vocalizations (Barfield & Geyer, 1972;Morgret, 1972;Thor, Ghiselli, & Wilson, 1973), for processing human speech patterns (Rogers, Scherer, & Rosenthal, 1971), and in the processing of bioelectric potentials (Helmer, 1975;Paskewitz, 1971;Rouse, 1974). The successful use of the electronic filter as a speech processor suggests its application to overcome some of the difficulties encountered in the use of voice keys (Kapuzinski & Rosenquist, 1973).…”

“…Commercially available filters are quite expensive ($395 to $1875) and are designed for much more stringent applications than are usually found in behavioral research. A perfectly satisfactory bandpass filter (Thor, Ghiselli, & Wilson, 1973) was built at the Johnstone laboratory for less than $50 parts cost, including power supply. On the other hand, filter construction should not be attempted unless the builder has considerable technical skill and a good fundamental knowledge of theory, as well as access to an oscilloscope, a good multimeter, and an accurately calibrated signal generator.…”