Influence of various types of species-specific acoustic signals on the heart rate of mammals.

It has been demonstrated in the experiments on rodents and artiodactyles that significant changes in the heart rate (HR) in response to the presentation to animals of species-specific acoustic signals are manifested only under the conditions of a deficit of pragmatic information. The HR is determined in many respects by the type of signal, by the ecological particularities, and the physiological state of the animal perceiving the signal. In colonial and herd mammals, inhabitants of open spaces, susliks and reindeer, marked changes in HR are observed only under conditions which exclude the acquisition of visual information regarding changes in the social milieu. The development of an active avoidance conditioned reflex in arctic susliks in response to one of the types of species-specific alarm signals, a series of cries (with automatization of the skill) leads to a decrease in the depth and probability of the cardiological reaction both to the conditional stimulus as well as to another type of species-specific alarm signals, whistling. It was demonstrated that the biological dominant of maternal care in white rats, according to HR data, selectively influences the degree of emotiogenicity of the acoustic signal of discomfort in the young.