Using Vocalizations to Investigate Behavior in Mice
Abstract
Description
Both humans and mice share well conserved brain features and structures that play a role in behavior. These structures include the cerebral hemispheres, forebrain, midbrain, hindbrain, cerebellum, hippocampus, thalamus, and hypothalamus. A popular model organism in neuroscience, the behavioral phenotyping in mice is utilized by researchers in connection with models of neuropsychiatric disorders. The aim of this project is to introduce a new method to our lab, vocal analysis, and investigate its purpose in behavioral studies. The experiment set-up consisted of housing an adult C57BL/6 male mouse with an adult C57BL/6 female mouse for two weeks to help build a territory. After the removal of the female mice, the male mice’s instinct to mate was heightened and resulted in vocalizations when a new female was introduced. After evaluating various vocal programs with test samples, the best program was chosen. Male and female mice communication around 65 kHz was successfully visualized using Raven Lite 2.0 with specific parameters applied. Results showed a difference in vocalizations by different C57 mice. If these vocalizations represent the eagerness of the mouse in attracting females, then the difference in vocalizations could be due to aggressiveness towards mating. We hypothesize that the males that spoke less are less aggressive in terms of attracting females. Further studies, using standard methods to measure mice aggression, will be conducted and compared to this study’s results to confirm our hypothesis. If this method is supported, future studies can implement this technique to test anti-psychotic drugs that target behavioral symptoms in psychiatric disorders, like PTSD.
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Keywords
neuroscience, behavioral test, mice, mouse, vocal analysis, mice communication, mouse communication, spectrogram