Context-specific characteristics of ultrasonic vocalizations in adult mice (#806)
Mice produce various sounds with high frequency (USVs)
in social contexts. The vocalizations can be acoustically categorized into
several syllable types and mice emit different patterns depending on the strain.
The vocalizations vary across development and are affected by a housing environment,
social experience and motivational state in adults, but the differences of USVs
depending on the contexts are still controversial. In this study, we recorded
mouse vocalizations during the same- and the inter-sex communications;
male-male interaction, male-female interaction and female-female interaction to
examine whether mice emit different patterns of the vocalizartions depending on
social contexts. Both males and females emitted all types of vcalizations, but
males showed longer duration and a greater number of syllables when they
encountered a female than those when males and females encountered the same-sex
individuals. This longer syllables of male mice were noticeably produced during
the mounting behavior, suggesting that this syllable has an important role as a
courtship behavior. On the other hand, male mice produced short syllables with
upsweep frequency change with a high proportion throughout male-male
interaction. Both males and females showed a high proportion of this syllable
in early phase when they encounterd a female. These results suggested that the
vocalized pattern consisting chiefly of syllables with upsweep frequency change
was produced independently of sex and context. In the current study, we found
the differences of mouse vocalizations in the same- and inter-sex interaction
and the vocalizations consist of several pattern according to a temporal phase
of interaction and social context, suggesting that the vocalizations have a
different role depending on social context. Our findings provides further studies
of mouse ultrasonic vocalizations and understanding of vocal communication. (Work
supported by JSPS to YM.)