Department of Molecular and Translational Medicine, University of Brescia, Brescia, Italy.
University of Bordeaux, CNRS, INCIA, UMR 5287, Bordeaux, France.
Eur J Neurosci. 2023 Jun;57(12):2062-2096. doi: 10.1111/ejn.15957. Epub 2023 Mar 26.
Mice and rats emit ultrasonic vocalizations (USVs), which may express their arousal and emotional states, to communicate with each other. There is continued scientific effort to better understand the functions of USVs as a central element of the rodent behavioral repertoire. However, studying USVs is not only important because of their ethological relevance, but also because they are widely applied as a behavioral readout in various fields of biomedical research. In mice and rats, a large number of experimental models of brain disorders exist and studying the emission of USVs in these models can provide valuable information about the health status of the animals and the effectiveness of possible interventions, both environmental and pharmacological. This review (i) provides an updated overview of the contexts in which ultrasonic calling behaviour of mice and rats has particularly high translational value, and (ii) gives some examples of novel approaches and tools used for the analysis of USVs in mice and rats, combining qualitative and quantitative methods. The relevance of age and sex differences as well as the importance of longitudinal evaluations of calling and non-calling behaviour is also discussed. Finally, the importance of assessing the communicative impact of USVs in the receiver, that is, through playback studies, is highlighted.
老鼠会发出超声波（USVs），这可能表达了它们的觉醒和情绪状态，以便相互交流。科学界一直在努力更好地理解 USVs 的功能，因为它是啮齿动物行为组合的一个核心要素。然而，研究 USVs 不仅因为其具有重要的行为学意义，还因为它们作为各种生物医学研究领域的行为指标得到了广泛的应用。在老鼠中，存在大量的大脑疾病实验模型，研究这些模型中 USVs 的产生可以提供关于动物健康状况和可能的环境和药物干预措施有效性的有价值信息。这篇综述（i）提供了一个关于老鼠超声波呼叫行为具有高转化价值的背景的最新概述，（ii）给出了一些在老鼠中分析 USVs 的新方法和工具的例子，结合了定性和定量方法。还讨论了年龄和性别差异的相关性，以及对呼叫和非呼叫行为进行纵向评估的重要性。最后，强调了评估 USVs 在接收者中的交流影响的重要性，即通过回放研究。
