Prenatal Ethanol Exposure and Whisker Clipping Disrupt Ultrasonic Vocalizations and Play Behavior in Adolescent Rats

Abstract

Prenatal ethanol exposure can result in social deficits in humans and animals, including altered social interaction and poor communication. Rats exposed to ethanol prenatally show reduced play fighting, and a combination of prenatal ethanol exposure and neonatal whisker clipping further reduces play fighting compared with ethanol exposure alone. In this study, we explored whether expression of hedonic ultrasonic vocalizations (USVs) correlated with the number of playful attacks by ethanol-exposed rats, rats subjected to postnatal sensory deprivation by whisker clipping or both compared to control animals. In normally developing rats, hedonic USVs precede such interactions and correlate with the number of play interactions exhibited in dyads. Pregnant Long-Evans rats were fed an ethanol-containing liquid diet or a control diet. After birth, male and female pups from each litter were randomly assigned to the whisker-clipped or non-whisker-clipped condition. Animals underwent a social interaction test with a normally developing play partner during early or late-adolescence. USVs were recorded during play. Prenatal ethanol exposure reduced both play and hedonic USVs in early adolescence compared to control rats and persistently reduced social play. Interestingly, ethanol exposure, whisker clipping and the combination abolished the significant correlation between hedonic USVs and social play detected in control rats in early adolescence. This relationship remained disrupted in late adolescence only in rats subjected to both prenatal ethanol and whisker clipping. Thus, both insults more persistently disrupted the relationship between social communication and social play.

Ifenprodil infusion in agranular insular cortex alters social behavior and vocalizations in rats exposed to moderate levels of ethanol during prenatal development

“…22 kHz vocalizations occur in a variety of stressful situations, including social isolation [81], exposure to predators [82], and withdrawal from drugs [83]. Conversely, 50 kHz USVs tend to occur in more rewarding situations, such as mating, juvenile play, drug administration, and “tickling” [80, 84, 85]. We measured characteristics of USVs during social interaction to gain insight into affective states.…”

Biological and Acoustic Sex Differences in Rat Ultrasonic Vocalization

“…P28 P42 LE 10 min At P28, during play female control whisker clipped rats produced more 22 kHz USVs than other female groups. At P42, during play male rats overall had more 50 kHz USVs than female rats [98]. At P1, both male and female pups with prenatal cocaine exposure (PCE) produced fewer distress USVs than saline or untreated pups and male pups with PCE produced fewer USVs with at least one observable harmonic than male saline or untreated pups.…”

Social Behavior and Ultrasonic Vocalizations in a Genetic Rat Model Haploinsufficient for the Cross-Disorder Risk Gene Cacna1c

“…There is also a significant number of studies assessing the long-term effects of various early life stressors on 50-kHz USV emission during rough-and-tumble play. Such studies focused, for instance, on the effects of prenatal exposure to ethanol [80,81] and valproic acid [82,83]. Recent studies found that prenatal ethanol exposure leads to an enhanced emission of 22-kHz USV at the expense of 50-kHz USV during rough-and-tumble play in males but not females [84].…”