Automated classification of mouse pup isolation syllables: from cluster analysis to an Excel-based "mouse pup syllable classification calculator".

Title

Automated classification of mouse pup isolation syllables: from cluster analysis to an Excel-based "mouse pup syllable classification calculator".

Creator

Grimsley Jasmine M S; Gadziola Marie A; Wenstrup Jeffrey J

Publisher

Frontiers in behavioral neuroscience

Date

2012
1905-07

Description

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.

Subject

vocalization; cluster analysis; communication call; isolation calls; mouse pup calls; mouse song

Rights

Article information provided for research and reference use only. All rights are retained by the journal listed under publisher and/or the creator(s).

Pages

89–89

Volume

6

Citation

Grimsley Jasmine M S; Gadziola Marie A; Wenstrup Jeffrey J, “Automated classification of mouse pup isolation syllables: from cluster analysis to an Excel-based "mouse pup syllable classification calculator".,” NEOMED Bibliography Database, accessed March 19, 2024, https://neomed.omeka.net/items/show/5131.