Ultrasonic Vocalizations Emission Across Development in Rats: Coordination with Respiration and Impact on Brain Neural Dynamics

Overview

Journal Brain Sci

Publisher MDPI

Date 2021 Jun 2

PMID 34064825

Citations 6

Authors

Julie Boulanger-Bertolus

Anne-Marie Mouly

Affiliations

Soon will be listed here.

Abstract

Rats communicate using ultrasonic vocalizations (USV) throughout their life when confronted with emotionally stimulating situations, either negative or positive. The context of USV emission and the psychoacoustic characteristics of the vocalizations change greatly between infancy and adulthood. Importantly, the production of USV is tightly coordinated with respiration, and respiratory rhythm is known to influence brain activity and cognitive functions. This review goes through the acoustic characteristics and mechanisms of production of USV both in infant and adult rats and emphasizes the tight relationships that exist between USV emission and respiration throughout the rat's development. It further describes how USV emission and respiration collectively affect brain oscillatory activities. We discuss the possible association of USV emission with emotional memory processes and point out several avenues of research on USV that are currently overlooked and could fill gaps in our knowledge.

Citing Articles

Stress-Induced Ultrasonic Vocalization in Laboratory Rats and Mice: A Scoping Review.

Venkatraman A, Bretl M, Kim S, Christensen L, Kelm-Nelson C, Ciucci M Brain Sci. 2024; 14(11).

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Seasonal variation in the ultrasonic vocal activity of Humboldt's flying squirrel ().

Farwell T, Clucas B Ecol Evol. 2024; 14(9):e70344.

PMID: 39315302 PMC: 11419791. DOI: 10.1002/ece3.70344.

One respiratory cycle as a minimum time unit for making behavioral decisions in the mammalian olfactory system.

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Characterizing maternal isolation-induced ultrasonic vocalizations in a gene-environment interaction rat model for autism.

Mohrle D, Yuen M, Zheng A, Haddad F, Allman B, Schmid S Genes Brain Behav. 2023; 22(3):e12841.

PMID: 36751016 PMC: 10242206. DOI: 10.1111/gbb.12841.

Age- and sex-specific effects of maternal separation on the acoustic startle reflex in rats: early baseline enhancement in females and blunted response to ambiguous threat.

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