Experience restores innate female preference for male ultrasonic vocalizations

• Type of Material: Article
• Authors: Kathryn N. Shepard, Emory University; Robert C Liu, Emory University
• Language: English
• Date: 2011-02
• Publisher: Wiley: 12 months
• Publication Version: Author Accepted Manuscript (After Peer Review)
• Copyright Statement: © 2010 The Authors. Genes, Brain and Behavior © 2010 Blackwell Publishing Ltd and International Behavioural and Neural Genetics Society
• Final Published Version (URL): http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1601-183X.2010.00580.x/abstract;jsessionid=AC499B95476AA50844B3BF444F6902AA.d04t04?systemMessage=Wiley+Online+Library+will+be+unavailable+for+approximately+4+hours+between+09%3A00+EDT+and+14%3A00+EDT+on+Saturday%2C+28+September+2013+as+we+make+upgrades+to+improve+our+services+to+you.+There+will+also+be+some+delays+to+online+publishing+between+25+to+28+September+2013.+We+apologize+for+the+inconvenience+and+appreciate+your+patience.+Thank+you+for+using+Wiley+Online+Library%21
• Title of Journal or Parent Work: Genes, Brain and Behavior
• ISSN: 1601-1848
• Volume: 10
• Issue: 1
• Start Page: 28
• End Page: 34
• Grant/Funding Information: The authors thank the National Institutes of Health (R01 DC008343 to RCL and T32 GM008605 to KS) and the National Science Foundation’s Center for Behavioral Neuroscience (IBN-9876754) for funding.; National Institute on Deafness and Other Communication Disorders : NIDCD
• Research Categories: Biology, Genetics; Health Sciences, Obstetrics and Gynecology; Biology, Neuroscience

Abstract

Mouse models are increasingly contributing to our understanding of the neural genetics of sensory processing and memory. For example, strain differences have helped elucidate basic mechanisms of age-related hearing loss and auditory fear conditioning. Assessing sensory differences arising in acoustic communication contexts is also important for understanding natural audition. While this topic has not been well studied, it is currently being addressed through auditory neuroethological studies in the CBA/CaJ strain, where insights will help lay a foundation for future neural genetic studies. Here, we focus on the responses of adult females to ultrasonic vocalizations of males. We tested a group of female mice in a place-preference paradigm before and after auditory and olfactory experience with a male. A control group was housed with other female cagemates between trials. All females showed an initial preference for male calls that rapidly decayed over the course of a trial. However, only females that had been pair-housed with a male during the inter-trial interval displayed a reinstated interest in male vocalizations, suggesting possible group differences in the assessment of the calls’ behavioral relevance. These findings provide a timeframe during which auditory processing of male ultrasounds might be expected to show a difference depending on behavioral relevance, and also suggest an importance of social interactions in maintaining call recognition.