Speaker
Description
Humans and mice differ quite strongly in their communication means. The hearing range of mice is not identical to humans. Mice communicate within the human hearing range and out in a world beyond our perception in the ultrasonic spectrum (20 kHz - 110 kHz) Mice are vocalizing in our human hearing range if they want to warn others or are in distress. But mostly for social interactions they utter sounds in the ultrasonic region above 20kHz. I will show in this presentation an insight of these vocalizations including their complexity.
Several studies show that this ultrasonic vocalization (USV) of mice is important for the exchange of social information. Mice communicate and transfer information in short syllables or longer calls consisting of several syllables in the ultrasonic range. In social interactions mice show this behavior: pups to parents, juvenile mice and within the mating context as well as interacting with the same sex.
It is very important to be aware of the senses, which the research animal of interest is using, in order not to involuntary influence the animal behavior and in the end animal welfare.We will describe the fascinating world of ultrasonic vocalization and communication in mice. The recording and analysis of USV from mice could be used to monitor mice with minimal human interference. We try to understand the usage of the vocalization and the possible alteration because of human influences. In the end we will also show the potentials of this method as also the drawbacks and limits of this approach.
References:
von Merten, S., Hoier, S., Pfeifle, C., & Tautz, D. (2014). A Role for Ultrasonic Vocalisation in Social Communication and Divergence of Natural Populations of the House Mouse (Mus musculus domesticus). PLoS ONE, 9.
Hoier S, Pfeifle C, von Merten S, Linnenbrink M (2016) Communication at the Garden
Fence –Context Dependent Vocalization in Female
House Mice. PLoS ONE 11(3): e0152255. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0152255
Medina, C., Evaluating Ultrasonic Vocalization as a tool for assessing welfare in mice. Master thesis, 30.09.2021 RWTH Aachen
