title: Studying Socio-Affective Communication in Rats through Playback of Ultrasonic Vocalizations.
abstract: Rats are able to produce ultrasonic vocalizations (USVs). Such USVs are an important component of the rat social behavior repertoire and serve distinct communicative functions as socio-affective signals. Depending on the emotional valence of the situation, juvenile and adult rats utter (1) aversive 22-kHz USVs conveying an appeasing and/or alarming function; or (2) appetitive 50-kHz USVs, which act as social contact calls, amongst others. A 50-kHz USV radial maze playback paradigm that allows assessment of the behavioral responses displayed by the recipients in a highly standardized manner has been developed. In this newly developed paradigm, a rat is exposed individually to playback of natural 50-kHz USVs and appropriate acoustic control stimuli using an acoustic presentation system for ultrasound. By this means, it has been consistently shown that 50-kHz USVs lead to social approach behavior in the recipient, supporting the notion that they serve an affiliative function as social contact calls.
authors.affiliation: Behavioral Neuroscience, Experimental and Biological Psychology, Philipps-University of Marburg, Marburg, Germany.
authors.forename: Markus
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Wöhr
authors.affiliation: Behavioral Neuroscience, Experimental and Biological Psychology, Philipps-University of Marburg, Marburg, Germany.
authors.forename: Dominik
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Seffer
authors.affiliation: Behavioral Neuroscience, Experimental and Biological Psychology, Philipps-University of Marburg, Marburg, Germany.
authors.forename: Rainer K W
authors.initials: RK
authors.lastname: Schwarting
mesh_terms: D000161:Acoustic Stimulation; D000819:Animal Communication; D000818:Animals; D004644:Emotions / Q000502:physiology*; D011571:Psychoacoustics; D051381:Rats; D012919:Social Behavior; D014465:Ultrasonics; D014828:Vocalization, Animal / Q000502:physiology*
keywords: alarm call; contact call; playback; social behavior; social motivation; ultrasonic communication; ultrasonic vocalization