Branchi Igor, Santucci Daniela, Alleva Enrico
Istituto Superiore di Sanitá, Rome, Italy.
Curr Protoc Toxicol. 2006;Chapter 13:Unit13.12. doi: 10.1002/0471140856.tx1312s30.
Altricial rodent pups emit ultrasonic vocalizations (USVs), which are whistle-like sounds with frequencies between 30 and 90 kHz. These signals play an important communicative role in mother-offspring interaction because they elicit in the dam a prompt response as concerning care-giving behaviors. To investigate neurobehavioral development, the analysis of the number of USVs presents several advantages: (1) USVs are one of the few responses produced by very young rodents that can be quantitatively analyzed and elicited by quantifiable stimuli; (2) USV emission follows a clear ontogenetic profile from birth to the second to third week of life, thus allowing longitudinal analysis during very early post-natal ontogeny. The reported role played by several receptor agonists and antagonists in modulating the USV rate makes this measure highly informative in investigating the effects of toxicants and, more generally, psychoactive compounds on the development of selected brain systems.
晚成性啮齿动物幼崽会发出超声波发声（USV），即频率在30至90千赫兹之间的类似哨声的声音。这些信号在母婴互动中起着重要的交流作用，因为它们会促使母鼠对照顾行为做出迅速反应。为了研究神经行为发育，分析USV的数量具有几个优点：（1）USV是非常年幼的啮齿动物产生的少数几种反应之一，可以进行定量分析，并由可量化的刺激引发；（2）USV的发出从出生到出生后第二至第三周呈现出清晰的个体发育特征，因此可以在出生后非常早期的个体发育过程中进行纵向分析。几种受体激动剂和拮抗剂在调节USV频率方面所起的作用表明，这项测量在研究有毒物质以及更普遍地说精神活性化合物对选定脑系统发育的影响方面具有很高的信息量。
