Ultrasonic vocalizations by male house mice (Mus musculus) to novel odors: roles of infant and adult experience.

Two experiments were conducted to examine 70-kHz ultrasonic courtship vocalizations by adult male mice (Mus musculus) to novel odors following exposure to these odors in infancy and/or adulthood. The research was performed in hopes of better understanding the experiences giving rise to vocalizations to naturally occurring chemosignals. Experiment 1 demonstrated that adult males normally do not vocalize to the urine of female rats but would come to do so if adult female mice odorized with female rat urine were repeatedly encountered postpubertally. On the other hand, encountering their own mother odorized with female rat urine from birth until weaning did not promote vocalizations to the urine of female rats. Experiment 2 was designed to examine vocalizations to the urine of female mice whose urinary odor was altered by the ingestion of fenugreek, a spice. Although the magnitude of the effect was smaller in this experiment, greater amounts of vocalization again were seen by males that as adults encountered females that had ingested fenugreek. Males with such experience also showed a small but significant elevation in vocalizations to the fenugreek odor itself. Again, experience with the novel odor during infancy was not associated with elevated vocalizations during adulthood either to fenugreek-altered urine or to the fenugreek odor itself. Thus vocalizations to two different novel odors occurred only after an adult male had encountered an adult female odorized with the novel odor. On the other hand, none of the novel odor experiences eliminated vocalizations to the naturally occurring chemosignal in female mouse urine.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)