Physiological and behavioral responses to vocalization playback in mice.
stress; mouse; anxiety; communication; vocalization; corticosterone; low frequency; ultrasonic
In mice, the caller's production of social vocalizations has been extensively studied but the effect of these vocalizations on the listener is less understood, with playback studies to date utilizing one vocalization category or listeners of one sex. This study examines how several categories of mouse vocalizations affect listeners of both sexes to better understand the communicative functions of these vocal categories. We examined physiological and behavioral responses of male and female CBA/CaJ mice to playback of four social vocalization categories: ultrasonic vocalizations (USVs), low-frequency harmonic calls, mid-frequency vocalizations, and noisy calls. Based on the conditions under which these calls are emitted, we hypothesized that playback of these vocal categories would have differential effects on the listeners. In females, playback of all four vocalization categories increased stress hormone levels (corticosterone), but only the non-USV categories increased corticosterone in males. The magnitude of corticosterone increase in non-USV trials was greater in females than in males. In open field tests, all four vocal categories decreased central ambulation in males and females, indicating an increase in anxiety-related behavior. Further, we found that the proportions of USVs emitted by subjects, but not their overall calling rates, were affected by playback of some vocal categories, suggesting that vocalization categories have different communication content. These results show that, even in the absence of behavioral and acoustic contextual features, each vocal category evokes physiological and behavioral responses in mice, with some differences in responses as a function of the listener's sex and playback signal. These findings suggest that at least some of the vocal categories have distinct communicative functions. (Copyright © 2020 Niemczura, Grimsley, Kim, Alkhawaga, Poth, Carvalho and Wenstrup.)
Niemczura AC;Grimsley JM;Kim C;Alkhawaga A;Poth Austin;Carvalho A;Wenstrup JJ
Frontiers In Behavioral Neuroscience
2020
2020-09-01
Article information provided for research and reference use only. All rights are retained by the journal listed under publisher and/or the creator(s).
journalArticle
<a href="http://doi.org/10.3389/fnbeh.2020.00155" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">10.3389/fnbeh.2020.00155</a>
Variable Effects of Acoustic Trauma on Behavioral and Neural Correlates of Tinnitus In Individual Animals.
inferior colliculus; gap-induced prepulse inhibition of the acoustic startle reflex; hearing loss; prepulse audiometry; single unit recording; tinnitus
The etiology of tinnitus is known to be diverse in the human population. An appropriate animal model of tinnitus should incorporate this pathological diversity. Previous studies evaluating the effect of acoustic over exposure (AOE) have found that animals typically display increased spontaneous firing rates and bursting activity of auditory neurons, which often has been linked to behavioral evidence of tinnitus. However, only a subset of studies directly associated these neural correlates to individual animals. Furthermore, the vast majority of tinnitus studies were conducted on anesthetized animals. The goal of this study was to test for a possible relationship between tinnitus, hearing loss, hyperactivity and bursting activity in the auditory system of individual unanesthetized animals following AOE. Sixteen mice were unilaterally exposed to 116 dB SPL narrowband noise (centered at 12.5 kHz) for 1 h under ketamine/xylazine anesthesia. Gap-induced prepulse inhibition of the acoustic startle reflex (GPIAS) was used to assess behavioral evidence of tinnitus whereas hearing performance was evaluated by measurements of auditory brainstem response (ABR) thresholds and prepulse inhibition PPI audiometry. Following behavioral assessments, single neuron firing activity was recorded from the inferior colliculus (IC) of four awake animals and compared to recordings from four unexposed controls. We found that AOE increased spontaneous activity in all mice tested, independently of tinnitus behavior or severity of threshold shifts. Bursting activity did not increase in two animals identified as tinnitus positive (T+), but did so in a tinnitus negative (T-) animal with severe hearing loss (SHL). Hyperactivity does not appear to be a reliable biomarker of tinnitus. Our data suggest that multidisciplinary assessments on individual animals following AOE could offer a powerful experimental tool to investigate mechanisms of tinnitus.
Longenecker Ryan J; Galazyuk Alexander V
Frontiers in behavioral neuroscience
2016
1905-7
Article information provided for research and reference use only. All rights are retained by the journal listed under publisher and/or the creator(s).
<a href="http://doi.org/10.3389/fnbeh.2016.00207" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">10.3389/fnbeh.2016.00207</a>
Contextual Modulation of Vocal Behavior in Mouse: Newly Identified 12 kHz "Mid-Frequency" Vocalization Emitted during Restraint.
mouse; context; isolation; restraint; stress; vocalization
While several studies have investigated mouse ultrasonic vocalizations (USVs) emitted by isolated pups or by males in mating contexts, studies of behavioral contexts other than mating and vocalization categories other than USVs have been limited. By improving our understanding of the vocalizations emitted by mice across behavioral contexts, we will better understand the natural vocal behavior of mice and better interpret vocalizations from mouse models of disease. Hypothesizing that mouse vocal behavior would differ depending on behavioral context, we recorded vocalizations from male CBA/CaJ mice across three behavioral contexts including mating, isolation, and restraint. We found that brief restraint elevated blood corticosterone levels of mice, indicating increased stress relative to isolation. Further, after 3 days of brief restraint, mice displayed behavioral changes indicative of stress. These persisted for at least 2 days after restraint. Contextual differences in mouse vocal behavior were striking and robust across animals. Thus, while USVs were the most common vocalization type across contexts, the spectrotemporal features of USVs were context-dependent. Compared to the mating context, vocalizations during isolation and restraint displayed a broader frequency range, with a greater emphasis on frequencies below 50 kHz. These contexts also included more non-USV vocal categories and different vocal patterns. We identified a new Mid-Frequency Vocalization, a tonal vocalization with fundamental frequencies below 18 kHz, which was almost exclusively emitted by mice undergoing restraint stress. These differences combine to form vocal behavior that is grossly different among behavioral contexts and may reflect the level of anxiety in these contexts.
Grimsley Jasmine M S; Sheth Saloni; Vallabh Neil; Grimsley Calum A; Bhattal Jyoti; Latsko Maeson; Jasnow Aaron; Wenstrup Jeffrey J
Frontiers in behavioral neuroscience
2016
1905-07
Article information provided for research and reference use only. All rights are retained by the journal listed under publisher and/or the creator(s).
<a href="http://doi.org/10.3389/fnbeh.2016.00038" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">10.3389/fnbeh.2016.00038</a>
Automated classification of mouse pup isolation syllables: from cluster analysis to an Excel-based "mouse pup syllable classification calculator".
vocalization; cluster analysis; communication call; isolation calls; mouse pup calls; mouse song
Mouse pups vocalize at high rates when they are cold or isolated from the nest. The proportions of each syllable type produced carry information about disease state and are being used as behavioral markers for the internal state of animals. Manual classifications of these vocalizations identified 10 syllable types based on their spectro-temporal features. However, manual classification of mouse syllables is time consuming and vulnerable to experimenter bias. This study uses an automated cluster analysis to identify acoustically distinct syllable types produced by CBA/CaJ mouse pups, and then compares the results to prior manual classification methods. The cluster analysis identified two syllable types, based on their frequency bands, that have continuous frequency-time structure, and two syllable types featuring abrupt frequency transitions. Although cluster analysis computed fewer syllable types than manual classification, the clusters represented well the probability distributions of the acoustic features within syllables. These probability distributions indicate that some of the manually classified syllable types are not statistically distinct. The characteristics of the four classified clusters were used to generate a Microsoft Excel-based mouse syllable classifier that rapidly categorizes syllables, with over a 90% match, into the syllable types determined by cluster analysis.
Grimsley Jasmine M S; Gadziola Marie A; Wenstrup Jeffrey J
Frontiers in behavioral neuroscience
2012
1905-07
Article information provided for research and reference use only. All rights are retained by the journal listed under publisher and/or the creator(s).
<a href="http://doi.org/10.3389/fnbeh.2012.00089" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">10.3389/fnbeh.2012.00089</a>