Isolation induced changes in Guinea Pig Cavia porcellus pup distress whistles.
Guinea Pig Cavia porcellus pups emit high-pitched distress whistles when separated from their mother. In order to assess the influence of the duration of a brief isolation period on whistle acoustic structure, we recorded the distress whistles of six 8-day old pups separated for 15 min from their group in a novel environment and compared the mean values of the first and last 30 whistle notes. Acoustic analysis revealed, throughout the session, a significant decrease in whistle duration, an increase in mean frequency and a tendency for a decrease in number of harmonics in the first part of the note. Results demonstrate that, throughout a brief isolation period, the vocal response of Guinea Pig pups to isolation undergoes structural changes possibly related to time-dependent changes in motivational state.
Monticelli
Patrícia F
PF
Departamento de Psicologia Experimental, Universidade de São Paulo, São Paulo, SP, Brasil. monticel@usp.br
Tokumaru
Rosana S
RS
Ades
César
C
D000818:Animals; D000831:Animals, Newborn; D005260:Female; D006168:Guinea Pigs / Q000502:physiology*; D008297:Male; D008426:Maternal Deprivation; D012934:Social Isolation; D013018:Sound Spectrography; D013997:Time Factors; D014828:Vocalization, Animal / Q000502:physiology*