Recording Mouse Ultrasonic Vocalizations to Evaluate Social Communication

Abstract

Mice emit ultrasonic vocalizations in different contexts throughout development and in adulthood. These vocal signals are now currently used as proxies for modeling the genetic bases of vocal communication deficits. Characterizing the vocal behavior of mouse models carrying mutations in genes associated with neuropsychiatric disorders such as autism spectrum disorders will help to understand the mechanisms leading to social communication deficits. We provide here protocols to reliably elicit ultrasonic vocalizations in pups and in adult mice. This standardization will help reduce inter-study variability due to the experimental settings. Pup isolation calls are recorded throughout development from individual pups isolated from dam and littermates. In adulthood, vocalizations are recorded during same-sex interactions (without a sexual component) by exposing socially motivated males or females to an unknown same-sex conspecific. We also provide a protocol to record vocalizations from adult males exposed to an estrus female. In this context, there is a sexual component in the interaction. These protocols are established to elicit a large amount of ultrasonic vocalizations in laboratory mice. However, we point out the important inter-individual variability in the vocal behavior of mice, which should be taken into account by recording a minimal number of individuals (at least 12 in each condition). These recordings of ultrasonic vocalizations are used to evaluate the call rate, the vocal repertoire and the acoustic structure of the calls. Data are combined with the analysis of synchronous video recordings to provide a more complete view on social communication in mice. These protocols are used to characterize the vocal communication deficits in mice lacking ProSAP1/Shank2 , a gene associated with autism spectrum disorders. More ultrasonic vocalizations recordings can also be found on the mouseTube database, developed to favor the exchange of such data.

A Rat Model of a Focal Mosaic Expression of PCDH19 Replicates Human Brain Developmental Abnormalities and Behaviors

“…Conversely, some other models, (i.e., Pcdh19 X LacZ /Y; (Lim et al 2019)) did not show gross brain developmental abnormalities, but they did show some ASD-related behavioral phenotypes (Table 1). We found here that in rats electroporated with shRNA-Pcdh19 in the somatosensory cortex, brain developmental abnormalities were accompanied by decreased vocalisation and huddling behaviour in young pups, and poor sociability in adult animals, as already shown in animal models of ASD (Wöhr and Scattoni 2013;Scattoni, Crawley, and Ricceri 2009;Ferhat et al 2016;Szczurkowska et al 2018;Naskar et al 2019). Interestingly, also a large number (32%) of people with EIEE9 carry a diagnosis of ASD (Smith et al 2018;Clarke 2015)) with social deficits early in life that persist and may become more prominent in adulthood (Depienne et al 2011).…”

Insights from social transmission of information in rodents

“…Mice possess a more varied repertoire of vocalizations as compared with rats. Mice have been found to emit a wide range of frequency‐modulated USVs (emissions staying between 30 and 110 kHz) that can be divided into predictable syllables, that is, time‐separated emissions, with individual emissions possessing one of a number of consistently occurring frequency patterns . In mice, these vocalizations have traditionally thought to be primarily linked to male courtship behavior, although more recent research indicates that male and female mice alike may also emit these calls as a territorial response to intruders (for review see Reference ).…”

Integration of behavioral and biological variables using penalized regression: an application to the maternal immune activation model of autism

“…At P6, individual pups were isolated from their mother and litter and placed on a cotton-padded dish into a thermo-controlled (26°C) soundproof chamber. Ultra-sonic vocalizations (USV) were recorded for 5 min using the UltraSoundGate Condenser Microphone and 116 USB Audio device (Avisoft Bioacoustics), as described [14,15]. Four pups were recorded simultaneously in parallel chambers.…”

“…Four pups were recorded simultaneously in parallel chambers. Sonograms were analyzed with the AvisoftSASLab Pro software (version 5.2.12, Avisoft Bioacoustics) based on automated recognition of USV using a 25 kHz cut-off frequency and a 2-7 ms element separation, as described in [14]. Misidentified USV were manually curated and number and duration of USV were automatically extracted.…”