Testosterone regulates the emission of ultrasonic vocalizations and mounting behavior during different developmental periods in mice

Abstract

Testosterone masculinizes the brain and bodily functions and promotes the development of male characteristics. In the brain, there is a critical period during which testosterone acts on neural circuits to stimulate the development of male-type neural characteristics.Early exposure to testosterone masculinizes reproductive, cognitive, emotional, and neurophysiological functions, such as stress responses (McCarthy & Arnold, 2011). In the developing mammalian brain, testosterone can either be metabolized to estrogen via aromatase, dihydrotestosterone (DHT) via 5α-reductase, or remain unmetabolized. Testosterone and DHT act through a single androgen receptor (AR), while estrogen acts through two types of estrogen receptors (ERα and ERβ) (McCarthy & Arnold, 2011). The relative

Testosterone Increases the Emission of Ultrasonic Vocalizations With Different Acoustic Characteristics in Mice

“…Further analysis of testosterone and estrogen in the mouse brain after TP injections is needed to clarify this issue. In contrast, adult testosterone treatment has been shown to mimic testosterone secretion in intact males [17]. These perinatal and adult treatments induced USVs and mounting behavior in females at a similar level to that seen in intact males, indicating that testosterone was sufficient to induce male sexual behavior, as previously reported [8,17].…”

“…The neural mechanisms underlying the emission of USVs with complex call types, different frequency calls, and the pattern of transition of call types are yet to be uncovered. We previously reported that the neural circuits underscoring USV emissions and mounting behavior differ; the emission of USVs depends on the main olfactory circuit [2,17]. Mice lacking the dorsal region of the main olfactory bulb demonstrated a decrease in USV emissions.…”

“…Several reports have demonstrated the emission of USVs by females in male-female interactions [17,27]. In these reports, a pair of mice were introduced into a relatively large cage and they displayed a repertoire of complex behavior.…”

“…All the vocalization data were acquired in our previous study [17], and we analyzed the acoustic characteristics of the calls using a state-of-the-art machine learning method [10] which was not available at the time of the initial publication. We have described the methods briefly below.…”

“…We also reported that while male sexual behavior, such as mounting, is mediated via the vomeronasal neural circuits, USV emissions induced by chemosignals are mediated predominantly by the main olfactory system [16], suggesting that these male sexual behaviors are regulated by distinct neural circuits. Recently, we reported that perinatal testosterone treatment in female mice induces comparable numbers of USVs to males, but they are controlled by a different timeline to the testosteroneinduced male mounting behavior [17]. Therefore, the neural circuits that regulate male mounting behavior and USVs are both masculinized by perinatal testosterone.…”