Department of Biomedical Sciences, Neuropsychopharmacology Division, University of Cagliari, Italy; National Institute of Neuroscience (INN), University of Cagliari, Cagliari, Italy.
Department of Psychology, Brock University, St. Catharines, ON, L3 3A1 Canada.
J Neurosci Methods. 2018 Dec 1;310:33-44. doi: 10.1016/j.jneumeth.2018.06.018. Epub 2018 Jun 26.
Adolescent and adult rats emit 50-kHz ultrasonic vocalizations (USVs) to communicate the appetitive arousal and the presence of positive emotional states to conspecifics.
Based on its communicative function, emission of 50-kHz USVs is increasingly being evaluated in preclinical studies of affective behavior, motivation and social behavior.
Emission of 50-kHz USVs is initiated by the activation of dopamine receptors in the shell subregion of the nucleus accumbens. However, several lines of evidence show that non-dopaminergic receptors may influence the numbers of 50-kHz USVs that are emitted, as well as the acoustic parameters of calls.
Emission of 50-kHz USVs is a non-invasive method that may be used to study reward and motivation without the need for extensive training and complex animal manipulations. Moreover, emission of 50-kHz USVs can be used alone or combined with other well-standardized behavioral paradigms (e.g., conditioned place preference, self-administration).
This review summarizes the current evidence concerning molecular mechanisms that regulate the emission of 50-kHz USVs. Moreover, the review discusses the usefulness of 50-kHz USVs as an experimental tool to investigate how different neurotransmitter systems regulate the manifestations of positive emotional states, and also use of this tool in preclinical modeling of psychiatric diseases.
青少年和成年大鼠会发出 50-kHz 超声波（USVs），以向同类传达食欲激发和积极情绪状态的存在。
基于其交流功能，50-kHz USVs 的发射越来越多地被用于情感行为、动机和社会行为的临床前研究中。
50-kHz USVs 的发射是由伏隔核壳区多巴胺受体的激活引发的。然而，有几条证据表明，非多巴胺受体可能会影响发出的 50-kHz USVs 的数量以及叫声的声学参数。
50-kHz USVs 的发射是一种非侵入性的方法，可以用于研究奖励和动机，而无需进行广泛的训练和复杂的动物操作。此外，50-kHz USVs 的发射可以单独使用或与其他经过良好标准化的行为范式（例如，条件位置偏好、自我给药）结合使用。
本文综述了当前关于调节 50-kHz USVs 发射的分子机制的证据。此外，本文还讨论了 50-kHz USVs 作为实验工具的有用性，用于研究不同神经递质系统如何调节积极情绪状态的表现，以及在精神疾病的临床前模型中使用这种工具。
