Reynolds Conner D, Nolan Suzanne O, Huebschman Jessica L, Hodges Samantha L, Lugo Joaquin N
Department of Psychology and Neuroscience, Baylor University, Waco, TX 76798, USA; Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences, University of North Texas Health Sciences Center, Fort Worth, TX 76107, USA.
Department of Psychology and Neuroscience, Baylor University, Waco, TX 76798, USA.
Epilepsy Behav. 2017 Jul;72:58-62. doi: 10.1016/j.yebeh.2017.04.025. Epub 2017 May 30.
Early-life seizures are known to cause long-term deficits in social behavior, learning, and memory, however little is known regarding their acute impact. Ultrasonic vocalization (USV) recordings have been developed as a tool for investigating early communicative deficits in mice. Previous investigation from our lab found that postnatal day (PD) 10 seizures cause male-specific suppression of 50-kHz USVs on PD12 in 129 SvEvTac mouse pups. The present study extends these findings by spectrographic characterization of USVs following neonatal seizures. On PD10, male C57BL/6 pups were administered intraperitoneal injections of kainic acid or physiological saline. On PD12, isolation-induced recordings were captured using a broad-spectrum ultrasonic microphone. Status epilepticus significantly suppressed USV quantity (p=0.001) and total duration (p<0.05). Seizure pups also utilized fewer complex calls than controls (p<0.05). There were no changes in call latency or inter-call intervals. Spectrographic analysis revealed increased peak amplitude for complex, downward, short, two-syllable, and upward calls, as well as reduced mean duration for short and two-syllable calls in seizure mice. This investigation provides the first known spectrographic characterization of USVs following early-life seizures. These findings also enhance evidence for USVs as an indicator of select communicative impairment.
已知早期癫痫发作会导致社交行为、学习和记忆方面的长期缺陷，然而关于其急性影响却知之甚少。超声发声（USV）记录已被开发为一种研究小鼠早期交流缺陷的工具。我们实验室先前的研究发现，出生后第10天（PD10）的癫痫发作会导致129 SvEvTac小鼠幼崽在PD12时出现雄性特异性的50kHz超声发声抑制。本研究通过对新生儿癫痫发作后超声发声的频谱特征分析扩展了这些发现。在PD10时，给雄性C57BL/6幼崽腹腔注射海藻酸或生理盐水。在PD12时，使用广谱超声麦克风记录隔离诱导的发声。癫痫持续状态显著抑制了超声发声的数量（p = 0.001）和总时长（p < 0.05）。癫痫发作的幼崽比对照组使用的复杂叫声也更少（p < 0.05）。叫声潜伏期或叫声间隔没有变化。频谱分析显示，癫痫发作小鼠的复杂、向下、短、双音节和向上叫声的峰值振幅增加，短叫声和双音节叫声的平均时长减少。本研究首次提供了早期癫痫发作后超声发声的频谱特征。这些发现也进一步证明了超声发声可作为特定交流障碍的指标。
