Ultrashort-range, high-frequency communication by female mice shapes social interactions
Open accessAbstract
Animals engage in complex social encounters that influence social groups and resource allocation. During these encounters, acoustic signals, used at both short and long ranges, play pivotal roles in regulating the behavior of conspecifics. Mice, for instance, emit ultrasonic vocalizations, signals above the range of human hearing, during close-range social interactions. How these signals shape behavior, however, is unknown due to the difficulty in discerning which mouse in a group is vocalizing. To overcome this impediment, we used an eight-channel microphone array system to determine which mouse emitted individual vocal signals during 30 minutes of unrestrained social interaction between a female and a single male or female conspecific. Females modulated both the timing and context of vocal emission based upon their social partner. Compared to opposite-sex pairings, females in same-sex pairs vocalized when closer to a social partner and later in the 30 minutes of social engagement. Remarkably, we found that female mice exhibited no immediate changes in acceleration (movement) to male-emitted vocal signals. Both males and females, in contrast, modulated their behavior following female-emitted vocal signals in a context-dependent manner. Thus, our results suggest female vocal signals function as a means of ultrashort-range communication that shapes mouse social behavior.
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Male mice alter behavior in response to female ultrasonic vocalizations, and these calls contain information about the female's reproductive receptivity.
“Similarly, male mice alter behavior in response to female USVs, and these calls contain information about the female’s reproductive receptivity [92,93].”
From The Neurobiology of Love and Pair Bonding from Human and Animal Perspectives (2023) · cites this paper as [93]
The Results (‘Behavioral responses to vocal signals’) show that males altered their behavior after female vocalizations in specific opposite-sex contexts. The Introduction says female calls are believed to signal receptivity, but the Discussion says the meaning of specific mouse vocalizations remains unknown. The claim presents that proposed meaning as established information carried by the calls. (LLM, conf=0.88)
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References 87 · Cited by 47
Research works printed but not linked: 5
- [5]Simola, N. & Brudzynski, S. M. In Handbook of Behavioral Neuroscience25 177–186 (Elsevier, 2018).
- [8]Fichtel, C. & Manser, M. In Animal Behaviour: Evolution and Mechanisms (ed. Peter Kappeler) 29–54 (Springer Berlin Heidelberg, 2010).
- [55]Zar, J. Biostatistical analysis Pearson Prentice-Hall. Upper Saddle River, NJ (2010).
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- [72]Maggio JC Whitney G Ultrasonic vocalizing by adult female mice (Mus musculus) J. Comp. Psychol. 1985 99 420 10.1037/0735-7036.99.4.420 4075780 · DOI
- Authors
- Warren, M. R., Clein, R. S., Spurrier, M. S., Roth, E. D., & Neunuebel, J. P.
- Affiliations
- University of Delaware (US)
- Corresponding author
- Neunuebel, J. P.
- Venue
- Scientific Reports
- Published
- 2020-02-14
- Volume
- 10
- Issue
- 1
- Pages
- 2637-2637
- ISSN
- 2045-2322 (ISSN-L)
- PMC
- PMC7021676
- OpenAlex
- W3006395358
- Cited by
- 47
- References
- 87
- Citations by year
- 2026: 3 · 2025: 7 · 2024: 8 · 2023: 7 · 2022: 9 · 2021: 11 · 2020: 2
- FWCI
- 6.74
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- gold
- doi.org
- Locations
- Scientific Reports (publishedVersion, cc-by)
- PubMed Central (publishedVersion, cc-by)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- Funders
- University of Delaware Research Foundation
- University of Delaware
- National Institutes of Health
- National Institute of General Medical Sciences (P20GM103653)
- Topics
- Life Sciences › Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology › Developmental Biology › Animal Vocal Communication and Behavior
- Physical Sciences › Environmental Science › Ecology › Marine animal studies overview
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Social Psychology › Primate Behavior and Ecology
- Keywords
- ultrasonic vocalizations, female mice, social interaction, acoustic communication, microphone array, sex differences, behavioral modulation, mouse social behavior
- MeSH terms
- Ultrasonic Waves, Animals, Female, Male, Sexual Behavior, Animal, Social Behavior, Vocalization, Animal, Mice
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