Pro-social ultrasonic communication in rats: insights from playback studies.

摘要: Rodent ultrasonic vocalizations (USV) serve as situation-dependent affective signals and convey important communicative functions. In the rat, three major USV types exist: (I) 40-kHz USV, which are emitted by pups during social isolation; (II) 22-kHz produced juvenile adult rats in aversive situations, including defeat; (III) 50-kHz uttered appetitive rough-and-tumble play. Here, evidence for a function of is reviewed, focusing on findings obtained recently developed radial maze playback paradigm. Up to now, following five acoustic stimuli were tested this paradigm: (A) natural (B) (C) artificial sine wave tones, (D) time- amplitude-matched white noise, (E) background noise. All studies using paradigm indicate that pro-social affiliative contact calls. While different kinds used so far elicited distinct behavioral response patterns, consistently led approach behavior recipient, indicating communication can be studied reliable highly standardized manner means This appears particularly relevant rodent models neurodevelopmental disorders, there tremendous need assays with face validity deficits seen autism schizophrenia order study underlying genetic neurobiological alterations.