BAMBI: A new method for automated assessment of bidirectional early-life interaction between maternal behavior and pup vocalization in mouse dam-pup dyads

Abstract

Vital early-life dyadic interaction in mice requires a pup to signal its needs adequately, and a dam to recognize and respond to the pup’s cues accurately and timely. Previous research might have missed important biological and/or environmental elements of this complex bidirectional interaction, because it often focused on one dyadic member only. In laboratory rodents, the Pup Retrieval Test (PRT) is the leading procedure to assess pup-directed maternal care. The present study describes BAMBI (Bidirectional Automated Mother-pup Behavioral Interaction test), a novel automated PRT methodology based on synchronous video recording of maternal behavior and audio recording of pup vocalizations, which allows to assess bidirectional dam-pup dyadic interaction. We were able to estimate pup retrieval and pup vocalization parameters accurately in 156 pups from 29 dams on postnatal days (PND) 5, 7, 9, 11, and 13. Moreover, we showed an association between number of emitted USVs and retrieval success, indicating dyadic interdependency and bidirectionality. BAMBI is a promising new automated home-cage behavioral method that can be applied to both basic and preclinical studies investigating complex phenotypes related to early-life social development.

What can challenging reproductive contexts tell us about the rat’s maternal behavior?

“…Moreover, the refinement in the analysis of classically recorded variables, as well as the incorporation of new ones, is proving a useful insight into the characterization of MB (Carcea et al, 2021;Rivas et al, 2021;Tuncali et al, 2023;Winters et al, 2023), and may be relevant for a more accurate description of the maternal repertoire displayed in challenging contexts. For example, Tuncali et al (2023), through the analysis of ultrasonic vocalizations of the mother-litter dyad, propose a role for the expression of maternal positive affect in the mother-pup interaction.…”

Unravelling the Role of the Dopamine D1 Receptor in Anhedonia, Asociality, and Avolition

“…We could examine if searching behaviour varies based on the genotype of the recording (Winters et al, 2022(Winters et al, , 2023. Lastly, we could use the Pup Retrieval Test to measure if dams retrieve pups differently based on the pups' genotype (Han & Lavooy, 2005;Winters et al, 2022Winters et al, , 2023. These three paradigms would give information on whether maternal care and retrieval behaviour differs based on the pups' genotype and whether this accounts for the results in the present study.…”

“…Secondly, playback of recorded pup vocalisations elicits search behaviour in dams. We could examine if searching behaviour varies based on the genotype of the recording (Winters et al, 2022(Winters et al, , 2023. Lastly, we could use the Pup Retrieval Test to measure if dams retrieve pups differently based on the pups' genotype (Han & Lavooy, 2005;Winters et al, 2022Winters et al, , 2023.…”