Department of Neurosurgery, Yale School of Medicine, New Haven, CT 06510, USA.
Department of Psychology and Neuroscience, Baylor University, Waco, TX 76798, USA.
J Neurosci Methods. 2021 Dec 1;364:109356. doi: 10.1016/j.jneumeth.2021.109356. Epub 2021 Sep 9.
Communication is an essential behavior in mammals. Alterations in communication (neonatal crying) characterize numerous human neurodevelopmental conditions. Mice produce communicative vocalizations, known as ultrasonic vocalizations, (USVs) that can be recorded. The Mouse Song Analyzer is an automated USV analysis system while DeepSqueak is a semi-automated USV detection system.
We used data from, C57BL/6J, FVB.129, and FVB neonates to compare the reliability of DeepSqueak and the Mouse Song Analyzer across various acoustic variables.
We found that both systems detected a similar quantity of USVs for FVB.129 and FVB mice. However, DeepSqueak detected more USVs for C57BL/6J mice. High correlations were found between systems for each strain. When assessing duration, Deepsqueak detected USVs of a longer duration then the Mouse Song Analyzer across all strains. A low correlation between systems for duration was found for FVB.129 mice, while high correlations were found for C57BL/6J and FVB mice. When assessing fundamental frequency, the Mouse Song Analyzer detected a higher frequency than DeepSqueak for FVB.129 mice, with no other differences present. High correlations between systems were found for C57BL/6J and FVB.129 mice, while a low correlation was found for FVB mice. We also assessed each system's sensitivity and found that Deepsqueak was able to detect softer USVs than the Mouse Song Analyzer.
These findings demonstrate that the strain of mouse used significantly affects the reliability of USV analysis systems. However, our data also indicates that DeepSqueak is more reliable and accurate than the Mouse Song Analyzer due to its increased sensitivity.
沟通是哺乳动物的一种基本行为。沟通的改变（新生儿哭声）是许多人类神经发育状况的特征。老鼠会发出称为超声波发声（USV）的交际性发声，可以对其进行记录。Mouse Song Analyzer 是一种自动 USV 分析系统，而 DeepSqueak 是一种半自动 USV 检测系统。
我们使用来自 C57BL/6J、FVB.129 和 FVB 新生儿的数据，比较了 DeepSqueak 和 Mouse Song Analyzer 在各种声学变量下的可靠性。
我们发现，对于 FVB.129 和 FVB 小鼠，这两种系统检测到的 USV 数量相似。然而，对于 C57BL/6J 小鼠，DeepSqueak 检测到的 USV 更多。对于每个品系，系统之间都存在高度相关性。在评估持续时间时，DeepSqueak 在所有品系中都检测到比 Mouse Song Analyzer 更长的 USV。对于 FVB.129 小鼠，系统之间的相关性较低，而对于 C57BL/6J 和 FVB 小鼠，相关性较高。在评估基频时，对于 FVB.129 小鼠，Mouse Song Analyzer 检测到的频率高于 DeepSqueak，而其他方面没有差异。对于 C57BL/6J 和 FVB.129 小鼠，系统之间存在高度相关性，而对于 FVB 小鼠，相关性较低。我们还评估了每个系统的灵敏度，发现 DeepSqueak 比 Mouse Song Analyzer 更能检测到更柔和的 USV。
这些发现表明，所使用的小鼠品系显著影响 USV 分析系统的可靠性。然而，我们的数据还表明，由于其灵敏度提高，DeepSqueak 比 Mouse Song Analyzer 更可靠和准确。
