Response to: Making WAAVES in the vocalization community: How big is the splash?

Reno, James M.; Duvauchelle, Christine L.

doi:10.1016/j.jneumeth.2013.09.008

Cited by 7 publications

(9 citation statements)

References 1 publication

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“…Although this seems to be a reasonable prediction, acoustic parameters such as USV duration, mean, and peak frequency are rarely reported because of the difficulty in accurately calculating these parameters using manual assessment techniques. These problems are circumvented with the use of an automated MAT-LAB-based USV analyses program, such as our WAAVES algorithm (Reno and Duvauchelle, 2014;Reno et al, 2013) because the duration of each USV and all frequencies contributing to each USV are tabulated in the course of identifying each USV. In addition, the WAAVES algorithm can be programmed to identify the frequency at which the maximum power occurs within each USV.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Alcohol‐Preferring P Rats Emit Spontaneous 22‐28 kHz Ultrasonic Vocalizations that are Altered by Acute and Chronic Alcohol Experience

Reno

Thakore

Gonzales

et al. 2015

Alcoholism Clin & Exp Res

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Background Emotional states are often thought to drive excessive alcohol intake and influence the development of alcohol use disorders (AUDs). To gain insight into affective properties associated with excessive alcohol intake, we utilized ultrasonic vocalization (USV) detection and analyses to characterize the emotional phenotype of selectively bred alcohol-preferring “P rats”; an established animal model of excessive alcohol intake. USVs emitted by rodents have been convincingly associated with positive (50–55 kHz) and negative (22–28 kHz) affective states. Therefore, we hypothesized that 50–55 and 22–28 kHz USV emission patterns in alcohol-preferring P rats would reveal a unique emotional phenotype sensitive to alcohol experience. Methods 50–55 kHz frequency-modulated (FM) and 22–28 kHz USVs elicited from male alcohol-preferring P rats were assessed during access to water, 15% and 30% EtOH (v/v). (EtOH; n=12) or water only (Control; n=4) across 8 weeks of daily drinking-in-the-dark (DID) sessions. Results Spontaneous 22–28 kHz USVs are emitted by alcohol-naïve P rats and are enhanced by alcohol experience. During DID sessions when alcohol was not available (e.g., “EtOH OFF” intervals), significantly more 22–28 kHz than 50–55 kHz USVs were elicited, while significantly more 50–55 kHz than 22–28 kHz USVs were emitted when alcohol was available (e.g., “EtOH ON” intervals). In addition, USV acoustic property analyses revealed chronic effects of alcohol experience on 22–28 kHz USV mean frequency, indicative of lasting alcohol-mediated alterations to neural substrates underlying emotional response. Conclusions Our findings demonstrate that acute and chronic effects of alcohol exposure are reflected in changes in 22–28 and 50–55 kHz USV counts and acoustic patterns. These data support the notion that initiation and maintenance of alcohol intake in P rats may be due to a unique, alcohol-responsive emotional phenotype and further suggest that spontaneous 22–28 kHz USVs serve as behavioral markers for excessive drinking vulnerability.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Alcohol‐Preferring P Rats Emit Spontaneous 22‐28 kHz Ultrasonic Vocalizations that are Altered by Acute and Chronic Alcohol Experience

Reno

Thakore

Gonzales

et al. 2015

Alcoholism Clin & Exp Res

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“…Our recent development of a MATLAB-based algorithm (WAAVES) (Reno & Duvauchelle, 2014; Reno, Marker, Cormack, Schallert, & Duvauchelle, 2013) automates the tabulation of USV counts and acoustic characteristics, thereby allowing us to conduct long term studies exploring counts and acoustic characteristics of spontaneously emitted USVs over multiple recording sessions. Using this tool, we conducted a study focused just on P and NP rats (Reno et al, 2017) and found that alcohol-naïve P and NP rats can be distinguished based solely on the acoustic properties associated with 22 – 28 kHz USVs.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Alcohol-naïve USVs distinguish male HAD-1 from LAD-1 rat strains

Mittal

Thakore

Reno

et al. 2018

Alcohol

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Ultrasonic vocalizations (USVs) are mediated through specific dopaminergic and cholinergic neural pathways and serve as real-time measures of positive and negative emotional status in rodents. Although most USV studies focus primarily on USV counts, each USV possesses a number of characteristics shown to reflect activity in the associated neurotransmitter system. In the present study, we recorded spontaneously emitted USVs from alcohol-naïve high alcohol drinking (HAD-1) and low alcohol drinking (LAD-1) rats. Using our recently developed WAAVES algorithm, we quantified four acoustic characteristics (mean frequency, duration, power, and bandwidth) from each 22-28 kHz and 50-55 kHz frequency-modulated (FM) USV. This rich USV representation allowed us to apply advanced statistical techniques to identify the USV acoustic characteristics that distinguished HAD-1 from LAD-1 rats. Linear mixed models (LMM) examined the predictability of each USV characteristic in isolation and linear discriminant analysis (LDA), and binomial logistic regression examined the predictability of linear combinations of the USV characteristics as a group. Results revealed significant differences in acoustic characteristics between HAD-1 and LAD-1 rats in both 22-28 kHz and 50-55 kHz FM USVs. In other words, these rats selectively bred for high- and low-alcohol consumption can be identified as HAD-1 or LAD-1 rats with high classification accuracy (approximately 92-100%) exclusively based on their emitted 22-28 kHz and 50-55 kHz FM USV acoustic characteristics. In addition, acoustic characteristics of 22-28 kHz and 50-55 kHz FM USVs emitted by alcohol-naïve HAD-1 and LAD-1 rats significantly correlate with their future alcohol consumption. Our current findings provide novel evidence that USV acoustic characteristics can be used to discriminate between alcohol-naïve HAD-1 and LAD-1 rats, and may serve as biomarkers in rodents with a predisposition for, or against, excessive alcohol intake.

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“…Although USV recordings are non-invasive and USV recording experiments are relatively easy to set up, USVs have remained relatively underutilized as important preclinical tools for the investigation of neural substrates underlying alcohol and drug abuse, primarily due to the manually intensive nature of the USV analysis process. The development of WAAVES (Reno & Duvauchelle, 2014; Reno et al, 2013), and other automated USV detection methods (Barker, Herrera, & West, 2014; Barker & Johnson, 2017) can help these problems and should encourage more labs to integrate USV recordings to their respective batteries of behavioral assays. Widespread use of USVs can unlock the true potential of this behavioral metric as a non-invasive correlate of underlying neural activity.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…USV recordings were analyzed using the WAAVES program developed in our laboratory (Reno & Duvauchelle, 2014; Reno et al, 2013). This program reads USV containing audio files and produces a frequency spectrogram, which is subsequently analyzed using MATLAB’s Image Processing Toolbox (MathWorks, Inc., Natick, MA).…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…In fact, nearly all published USV studies report only short durations of USV activity (e.g., less than 30 minutes) in counts alone (Armstrong et al, 2001; Brudzynski, 2015; Burgdorf, Wood, Kroes, Moskal, & Panksepp, 2007; Johnson, Grant, Schallert, & Ciucci, 2015; Kaniuga et al, 2016; Portfors, 2007; Scattoni et al, 2009), but do not provide a full USV profile that could be revealed by repeated, long-duration assessment periods. Our development of WAAVES, a highly accurate algorithm that automates the analysis of USVs (Reno & Duvauchelle, 2014; Reno, Marker, Cormack, Schallert, & Duvauchelle, 2013) has allowed us to analyze data from experiments with relatively long timelines, something that was previously not feasible using manual techniques. In addition, WAAVES also allows an examination of each USV in much greater detail.…”

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confidence: 99%

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Rodent ultrasonic vocalizations as biomarkers of future alcohol use: A predictive analytic approach

Mittal

Maddox²,

Duvauchelle

2017

Cogn Affect Behav Neurosci

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Excessive alcohol consumption has a vast, negative impact on society. Rodent models have been successful in furthering our understanding of the biological underpinnings that drive alcohol consumption. Rodents emit ultrasonic vocalizations (USVs) that are each composed of several acoustic characteristics (e.g., frequency, duration, bandwidth, power). USVs reflect neurotransmitter activity in the ascending limb of the mesolimbic dopaminergic and cholinergic neurotransmitter systems and serve as noninvasive, real-time biomarkers of dopaminergic and cholinergic neurotransmission in the limbic system. In the present study, we recorded spontaneously emitted USVs from alcohol-naïve Long-Evans (LE) rats and then measured their alcohol intake. We compared the USV acoustic characteristics and alcohol consumption data from these LE rats with previously published data from selectively bred high-alcohol (P and HAD-1) and low-alcohol (NP and LAD-1) drinking lines from studies with the same experimental method. Predictive analytic techniques were applied simultaneously to this combined data set and revealed that (a) USVs emitted by alcohol-naïve rats accurately discriminated among high-alcohol consuming, LE, and low-alcohol consuming rat lines, and (b) future alcohol consumption in these same rat lines was reliably predicted from the USV data collected in an alcohol-naïve state. To our knowledge, this is the first study to show that alcohol consumption is predicted directly from USV profiles of alcohol-naïve rats. Because USV acoustic characteristics are sensitive to underlying neural activity, these findings suggest that baseline differences in mesolimbic cholinergic and dopaminergic tone could determine the propensity for future alcohol consumption in rodents.

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Response to: Making WAAVES in the vocalization community: How big is the splash?

Cited by 7 publications

References 1 publication

Alcohol‐Preferring P Rats Emit Spontaneous 22‐28 kHz Ultrasonic Vocalizations that are Altered by Acute and Chronic Alcohol Experience

Alcohol‐Preferring P Rats Emit Spontaneous 22‐28 kHz Ultrasonic Vocalizations that are Altered by Acute and Chronic Alcohol Experience

Alcohol-naïve USVs distinguish male HAD-1 from LAD-1 rat strains

Rodent ultrasonic vocalizations as biomarkers of future alcohol use: A predictive analytic approach

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