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Hood KE, Hurley LM. Listening to your partner: serotonin increases male responsiveness to female vocal signals in mice. Front Hum Neurosci 2024; 17:1304653. [PMID: 38328678 PMCID: PMC10847236 DOI: 10.3389/fnhum.2023.1304653] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 09/29/2023] [Accepted: 12/28/2023] [Indexed: 02/09/2024] Open
Abstract
The context surrounding vocal communication can have a strong influence on how vocal signals are perceived. The serotonergic system is well-positioned for modulating the perception of communication signals according to context, because serotonergic neurons are responsive to social context, influence social behavior, and innervate auditory regions. Animals like lab mice can be excellent models for exploring how serotonin affects the primary neural systems involved in vocal perception, including within central auditory regions like the inferior colliculus (IC). Within the IC, serotonergic activity reflects not only the presence of a conspecific, but also the valence of a given social interaction. To assess whether serotonin can influence the perception of vocal signals in male mice, we manipulated serotonin systemically with an injection of its precursor 5-HTP, and locally in the IC with an infusion of fenfluramine, a serotonin reuptake blocker. Mice then participated in a behavioral assay in which males suppress their ultrasonic vocalizations (USVs) in response to the playback of female broadband vocalizations (BBVs), used in defensive aggression by females when interacting with males. Both 5-HTP and fenfluramine increased the suppression of USVs during BBV playback relative to controls. 5-HTP additionally decreased the baseline production of a specific type of USV and male investigation, but neither drug treatment strongly affected male digging or grooming. These findings show that serotonin modifies behavioral responses to vocal signals in mice, in part by acting in auditory brain regions, and suggest that mouse vocal behavior can serve as a useful model for exploring the mechanisms of context in human communication.
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Affiliation(s)
- Kayleigh E. Hood
- Hurley Lab, Department of Biology, Indiana University, Bloomington, IN, United States
- Center for the Integrative Study of Animal Behavior, Indiana University, Bloomington, IN, United States
| | - Laura M. Hurley
- Hurley Lab, Department of Biology, Indiana University, Bloomington, IN, United States
- Center for the Integrative Study of Animal Behavior, Indiana University, Bloomington, IN, United States
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Wang J, Li W, Li Z, Xue Z, Zhang Y, Yuan Y, Shi Y, Shan S, Han W, Li F, Qiu Z. Taok1 haploinsufficiency leads to autistic-like behaviors in mice via the dorsal raphe nucleus. Cell Rep 2023; 42:113078. [PMID: 37656623 DOI: 10.1016/j.celrep.2023.113078] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 02/08/2023] [Revised: 07/11/2023] [Accepted: 08/16/2023] [Indexed: 09/03/2023] Open
Abstract
Strong evidence from human genetic studies associates the thousand and one amino acid kinase 1 (TAOK1) gene with autism spectrum disorder (ASD). In this work, we discovered a de novo frameshifting mutation in TAOK1 within a Chinese ASD cohort. We found that Taok1 haploinsufficiency induces autistic-like behaviors in mice. Importantly, we observed a significant enrichment of Taok1 in the dorsal raphe nucleus (DRN). The haploinsufficiency of Taok1 considerably restrained the activation of DRN neurons during social interactions, leading to the aberrant phosphorylation of numerous proteins. Intriguingly, the genetic deletion of Taok1 in VGlut3-positive neurons of DRN resulted in mice exhibiting autistic-like behaviors. Ultimately, reintroducing wild-type Taok1, but not its kinase-dead variant, into the DRN of adult mice effectively mitigated the autistic-like behaviors associated with Taok1 haploinsufficiency. This work suggests that Taok1, through its influence in the DRN, regulates social interaction behaviors, providing critical insights into the etiology of ASD.
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Affiliation(s)
- Jincheng Wang
- Songjiang Research Institute, Songjiang District Central Hospital, Institute of Autism & MOE-Shanghai Key Laboratory for Children's Environmental Health, Shanghai Jiao Tong University School of Medicine, Shanghai, China; Institute of Neuroscience, Center for Excellence in Brain Science and Intelligence Technology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Shanghai, China
| | - Weike Li
- Institute of Neuroscience, Center for Excellence in Brain Science and Intelligence Technology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Shanghai, China
| | - Zimeng Li
- Institute of Neuroscience, Center for Excellence in Brain Science and Intelligence Technology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Shanghai, China
| | - Zhenyu Xue
- Department of Anesthesiology, Shanghai Ninth People's Hospital, Shanghai Jiao Tong University School of Medicine, Shanghai, China
| | - Yuefang Zhang
- Songjiang Research Institute, Songjiang District Central Hospital, Institute of Autism & MOE-Shanghai Key Laboratory for Children's Environmental Health, Shanghai Jiao Tong University School of Medicine, Shanghai, China
| | - Yiting Yuan
- Songjiang Research Institute, Songjiang District Central Hospital, Institute of Autism & MOE-Shanghai Key Laboratory for Children's Environmental Health, Shanghai Jiao Tong University School of Medicine, Shanghai, China
| | - Yuhan Shi
- Institute of Neuroscience, Center for Excellence in Brain Science and Intelligence Technology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Shanghai, China
| | - Shifang Shan
- Institute of Neuroscience, Center for Excellence in Brain Science and Intelligence Technology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Shanghai, China
| | - Wenjian Han
- Songjiang Research Institute, Songjiang District Central Hospital, Institute of Autism & MOE-Shanghai Key Laboratory for Children's Environmental Health, Shanghai Jiao Tong University School of Medicine, Shanghai, China
| | - Fei Li
- MOE-Shanghai Key Laboratory for Children's Environmental Health, Xinhua Hospital, Shanghai Jiao Tong University School of Medicine, Shanghai, China
| | - Zilong Qiu
- Songjiang Research Institute, Songjiang District Central Hospital, Institute of Autism & MOE-Shanghai Key Laboratory for Children's Environmental Health, Shanghai Jiao Tong University School of Medicine, Shanghai, China; Institute of Neuroscience, Center for Excellence in Brain Science and Intelligence Technology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Shanghai, China; MOE-Shanghai Key Laboratory for Children's Environmental Health, Xinhua Hospital, Shanghai Jiao Tong University School of Medicine, Shanghai, China; Clinic Neuroscience Center, Department of Neurology, Ruijin Hospital, Shanghai Jiao Tong University School of Medicine, Shanghai, China; National Clinical Research Center for Aging and Medicine, Huashan Hospital, Fudan University, Shanghai, China.
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Zala SM, Church B, Potts WK, Knauer F, Penn DJ. Female scent accelerates growth of juvenile male mice. Sci Rep 2023; 13:7371. [PMID: 37147391 PMCID: PMC10163255 DOI: 10.1038/s41598-023-34548-3] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 01/20/2023] [Accepted: 05/03/2023] [Indexed: 05/07/2023] Open
Abstract
Exposing female house mice (Mus musculus) to male urinary scent accelerates their sexual development (Vandenbergh effect). Here, we tested whether exposing juvenile male mice to females' urine similarly influences male growth and size of their sexual organs. We exposed three-week old male house mice to female urine or water (control) for ca. three months. We found that female-exposed males grew significantly faster and gained more body mass than controls, despite all males being reared on a controlled diet, but we detected no differences in males' muscle mass or sexual organs. In contrast, exposing juvenile males to male urine had no effect their growth. We tested whether the males' accelerated growth imposed functional trade-offs on males' immune resistance to an experimental infection. We challenged the same male subjects with an avirulent bacterial pathogen (Salmonella enterica), but found no evidence that faster growth impacted their bacterial clearance, body mass or survival during infection compared to controls. Our results provide the first evidence to our knowledge that juvenile male mice accelerate their growth when exposed to the urine of adult females, though we found no evidence that increased growth had negative trade-offs on immune resistance to infectious disease.
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Affiliation(s)
- Sarah M Zala
- Konrad Lorenz Institute of Ethology, University of Veterinary Medicine, Vienna, Savoyenstrasse 1a, 1160, Vienna, Austria.
- Department of Biology, University of Utah, 257 S. 1400 E., Salt Lake City, UT, 84112, USA.
| | - Brian Church
- Department of Biology, University of Utah, 257 S. 1400 E., Salt Lake City, UT, 84112, USA
| | - Wayne K Potts
- Department of Biology, University of Utah, 257 S. 1400 E., Salt Lake City, UT, 84112, USA
| | - Felix Knauer
- Research Institute of Wildlife Ecology, University of Veterinary Medicine, Vienna, 1160, Vienna, Austria
| | - Dustin J Penn
- Konrad Lorenz Institute of Ethology, University of Veterinary Medicine, Vienna, Savoyenstrasse 1a, 1160, Vienna, Austria
- Department of Biology, University of Utah, 257 S. 1400 E., Salt Lake City, UT, 84112, USA
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Wölfl S, Zala SM, Penn DJ. Male scent but not courtship vocalizations induce estrus in wild female house mice. Physiol Behav 2023; 259:114053. [PMID: 36502894 DOI: 10.1016/j.physbeh.2022.114053] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/31/2022] [Revised: 12/05/2022] [Accepted: 12/06/2022] [Indexed: 12/13/2022]
Abstract
Exposure to males or male urinary scent can induce and accelerate the rate of female estrous cycling in house mice ("Whitten effect"), and this response has been replicated many times since its discovery over 60 years ago. Here, we tested whether exposing female mice to recordings of male courtship ultrasonic vocalizations (USVs) induces estrous cycling, and whether exposure to both male scent and USVs has a stronger effect than to either of these stimuli alone. We conducted our study with 60 wild-derived female house mice (Mus musculus musculus). After singly housing females for 14 days, we monitored estrous stages via vaginal cytology for two weeks while isolated from males or male stimuli. We continued monitoring estrus for two more weeks during experimental exposure to one of four different types of stimuli: (1) clean bedding and background noise playback (negative control); (2) recordings of male USVs (16 min per day) and clean bedding (male USV treatment); (3) soiled male bedding and background noise playback (male odor treatment; positive control); or (4) male USVs and soiled male bedding (male odor and USV treatment). Females were then paired with males to test whether any of the four treatments influenced female reproduction (especially latency to birth). We confirmed that exposure to male odor increased female cycling, as expected, but exposure to recordings of male USVs had no effect on estrus. Females exposed to both USVs and odor went through more cycles compared to controls, but did not differ significantly from exposure to male odor (and background noise). After pairing females with a male, females showing male odor-induced cycling produced their first litter sooner than controls, whereas USVs did not have such an effect. This is the first study to our knowledge to show that male odor induces estrus in wild house mice and to show functional effects on reproduction. Our results do not support the hypothesis that male vocalizations induce female estrus, although we suggest other approaches that could be used to further test this hypothesis.
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Affiliation(s)
- Simon Wölfl
- Konrad Lorenz Institute of Ethology, University of Veterinary Medicine Vienna, Savoyenstrasse 1a, 1160, Vienna, Austria
| | - Sarah M Zala
- Konrad Lorenz Institute of Ethology, University of Veterinary Medicine Vienna, Savoyenstrasse 1a, 1160, Vienna, Austria
| | - Dustin J Penn
- Konrad Lorenz Institute of Ethology, University of Veterinary Medicine Vienna, Savoyenstrasse 1a, 1160, Vienna, Austria.
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Lenschow C, Mendes ARP, Lima SQ. Hearing, touching, and multisensory integration during mate choice. Front Neural Circuits 2022; 16:943888. [PMID: 36247731 PMCID: PMC9559228 DOI: 10.3389/fncir.2022.943888] [Citation(s) in RCA: 4] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/14/2022] [Accepted: 06/28/2022] [Indexed: 12/27/2022] Open
Abstract
Mate choice is a potent generator of diversity and a fundamental pillar for sexual selection and evolution. Mate choice is a multistage affair, where complex sensory information and elaborate actions are used to identify, scrutinize, and evaluate potential mating partners. While widely accepted that communication during mate assessment relies on multimodal cues, most studies investigating the mechanisms controlling this fundamental behavior have restricted their focus to the dominant sensory modality used by the species under examination, such as vision in humans and smell in rodents. However, despite their undeniable importance for the initial recognition, attraction, and approach towards a potential mate, other modalities gain relevance as the interaction progresses, amongst which are touch and audition. In this review, we will: (1) focus on recent findings of how touch and audition can contribute to the evaluation and choice of mating partners, and (2) outline our current knowledge regarding the neuronal circuits processing touch and audition (amongst others) in the context of mate choice and ask (3) how these neural circuits are connected to areas that have been studied in the light of multisensory integration.
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Caruso A, Marconi MA, Scattoni ML, Ricceri L. Ultrasonic vocalizations in laboratory mice: strain, age, and sex differences. GENES, BRAIN, AND BEHAVIOR 2022; 21:e12815. [PMID: 35689354 PMCID: PMC9744514 DOI: 10.1111/gbb.12815] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 01/29/2022] [Revised: 04/29/2022] [Accepted: 05/04/2022] [Indexed: 12/31/2022]
Abstract
Mice produce ultrasonic vocalizations (USVs) in different social contexts across lifespan. There is ethological evidence that pup USVs elicit maternal retrieval and adult USVs facilitate social interaction with a conspecific. Analysis of mouse vocal and social repertoire across strains, sex and contexts remains not well explored. To address these issues, in inbred (C57BL/6, FVB) and outbred (CD-1) mouse strains, we recorded and evaluated USVs as neonates and during adult social encounters (male-female and female-female social interaction). We showed significant strain differences in the quantitative (call rate and duration of USVs) and qualitative vocal analysis (spectrographic characterization) from early stage to adulthood, in line with specific patterns of social behaviors. Inbred C57BL/6 mice produced a lower number of calls with less internal changes and shorter duration; inbred FVB mice displayed more social behaviors and produced more syllables with repeated internal changes; outbred CD-1 mice had an intermediate profile. Our results suggest specific vocal signatures in each mouse strain, thus helping to better define socio-communicative profiles of mouse strains and to guide the choice of an appropriate strain according to the experimental settings.
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Affiliation(s)
- Angela Caruso
- Research Coordination and Support ServiceIstituto Superiore di SanitàRomeItaly
| | - Maria Adelaide Marconi
- Konrad Lorenz Institute of Ethology, Department of Interdisciplinary Life SciencesUniversity of Veterinary MedicineViennaAustria
| | | | - Laura Ricceri
- Center for Behavioral Sciences and Mental HealthIstituto Superiore di SanitàRomeItaly
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Abbasi R, Balazs P, Marconi MA, Nicolakis D, Zala SM, Penn DJ. Capturing the songs of mice with an improved detection and classification method for ultrasonic vocalizations (BootSnap). PLoS Comput Biol 2022; 18:e1010049. [PMID: 35551265 PMCID: PMC9098080 DOI: 10.1371/journal.pcbi.1010049] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 06/13/2021] [Accepted: 03/22/2022] [Indexed: 12/02/2022] Open
Abstract
House mice communicate through ultrasonic vocalizations (USVs), which are above the range of human hearing (>20 kHz), and several automated methods have been developed for USV detection and classification. Here we evaluate their advantages and disadvantages in a full, systematic comparison, while also presenting a new approach. This study aims to 1) determine the most efficient USV detection tool among the existing methods, and 2) develop a classification model that is more generalizable than existing methods. In both cases, we aim to minimize the user intervention required for processing new data. We compared the performance of four detection methods in an out-of-the-box approach, pretrained DeepSqueak detector, MUPET, USVSEG, and the Automatic Mouse Ultrasound Detector (A-MUD). We also compared these methods to human visual or ‘manual’ classification (ground truth) after assessing its reliability. A-MUD and USVSEG outperformed the other methods in terms of true positive rates using default and adjusted settings, respectively, and A-MUD outperformed USVSEG when false detection rates were also considered. For automating the classification of USVs, we developed BootSnap for supervised classification, which combines bootstrapping on Gammatone Spectrograms and Convolutional Neural Networks algorithms with Snapshot ensemble learning. It successfully classified calls into 12 types, including a new class of false positives that is useful for detection refinement. BootSnap outperformed the pretrained and retrained state-of-the-art tool, and thus it is more generalizable. BootSnap is freely available for scientific use. House mice and many other species use ultrasonic vocalizations to communicate in various contexts including social and sexual interactions. These vocalizations are increasingly investigated in research on animal communication and as a phenotype for studying the genetic basis of autism and speech disorders. Because manual methods for analyzing vocalizations are extremely time consuming, automatic tools for detection and classification are needed. We evaluated the performance of the available tools for analyzing ultrasonic vocalizations, and we compared detection tools for the first time to manual methods (“ground truth”) using recordings from wild-derived and laboratory mice. For the first time, class-wise inter-observer reliability of manual labels used for ground truth are analyzed and reported. Moreover, we developed a new classification method based on ensemble deep learning that provides more generalizability than the current state-of-the-art tool (both pretrained and retrained). Our new classification method is free for scientific use.
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Affiliation(s)
- Reyhaneh Abbasi
- Acoustic Research Institute, Austrian Academy of Sciences, Vienna, Austria
- Konrad Lorenz Institute of Ethology, Department of Interdisciplinary Life Sciences, University of Veterinary Medicine, Vienna, Austria
- Vienna Doctoral School of Cognition, Behaviour and Neuroscience, University of Vienna, Vienna, Austria
- * E-mail:
| | - Peter Balazs
- Acoustic Research Institute, Austrian Academy of Sciences, Vienna, Austria
| | - Maria Adelaide Marconi
- Konrad Lorenz Institute of Ethology, Department of Interdisciplinary Life Sciences, University of Veterinary Medicine, Vienna, Austria
| | - Doris Nicolakis
- Konrad Lorenz Institute of Ethology, Department of Interdisciplinary Life Sciences, University of Veterinary Medicine, Vienna, Austria
| | - Sarah M. Zala
- Konrad Lorenz Institute of Ethology, Department of Interdisciplinary Life Sciences, University of Veterinary Medicine, Vienna, Austria
| | - Dustin J. Penn
- Konrad Lorenz Institute of Ethology, Department of Interdisciplinary Life Sciences, University of Veterinary Medicine, Vienna, Austria
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Bogacki-Rychlik W, Rolf M, Bialy M. Anticipatory 50-kHz Precontact Ultrasonic Vocalizations and Sexual Motivation: Characteristic Pattern of Ultrasound Subtypes in an Individual Analyzed Profile. Front Behav Neurosci 2021; 15:722456. [PMID: 34489656 PMCID: PMC8417802 DOI: 10.3389/fnbeh.2021.722456] [Citation(s) in RCA: 7] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 06/08/2021] [Accepted: 08/03/2021] [Indexed: 11/17/2022] Open
Abstract
We verified the hypothesis of the existence of forms of individual-specific differences in the emission of anticipatory precontact vocalization (PVs) indicating individualization related to sexual experience and motivation in male rats. Long-Evans males were individually placed in a chamber and 50-kHz ultrasounds were recorded during 5-min periods. In experiment 1, PVs were recorded before the introduction of a female in four consecutive sessions during the acquisition of sexual experience. In experiment 2, PVs were analyzed in three groups of sexually experienced males: with the highest, moderate, and the lowest sexual motivation based on previous copulatory activity. In both experiments, the total number of ultrasounds, as well as 14 different specific subtypes, was measured. The ultrasound profiles for each male were created by analyzing the proportions of specific dominant subtypes of so-called 50-kHz calls. We decided that the dominant ultrasounds were those that represented more than 10% of the total recorded signals in a particular session. The number of PVs was positively correlated with the acquisition of sexual experience and previous copulatory efficiency (measured as the number of sessions with ejaculation). Furthermore, PVs showed domination of the frequency modulated signals (complex and composite) as well as flat and short with upward ramp ultrasounds with some individual differences, regardless of the level of sexual motivation. The results show a characteristic pattern of PVs and confirm the hypothesis that the number of PVs is a parameter reflecting the level of sexual motivation.
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Affiliation(s)
- Wiktor Bogacki-Rychlik
- Laboratory of Centre for Preclinical Research, Department of Experimental and Clinical Physiology, Medical University of Warsaw, Warsaw, Poland
| | - Mateusz Rolf
- Laboratory of Centre for Preclinical Research, Department of Experimental and Clinical Physiology, Medical University of Warsaw, Warsaw, Poland
| | - Michal Bialy
- Laboratory of Centre for Preclinical Research, Department of Experimental and Clinical Physiology, Medical University of Warsaw, Warsaw, Poland
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