Behavior-Dependent Ultrasonic Vocalizations in Prairie Voles Open Access

Abstract

Social communication is important for the survival and reproduction of many species. In humans, many neurodevelopmental disorders involve deficits in social-vocal communication. However, studying the mechanisms underlying social communication in traditional rodent models neglects monogamy behaviors relevant to the human social experience. Here, we use the socially monogamous prairie vole (Microtus ochrogaster) to explore how vocal emission and behavioral engagement change across the pair bonding experience and whether prairie vole vocalizations are dependent on behavior. Using behavioral scoring and vocalization extraction methods, we found similar numbers of behaviors animals engaged in or vocalizations emitted between strangers to bonded partners. However, in investigating the correlation between vocalizations and specific behaviors, we found that pair bonding seemed to change the relationship between behaviors and vocalizations. Interestingly, while there was no change in the total number of behaviors or vocalizations exhibited, animals increased their vocalization rate during more behaviors when they were pair-bonded. Together, these results indicate that vocal communication may help animals coordinate their behaviors and pair-bonding may help to further refine this coordination. This study not only expands our understanding of acoustic communication in prairie voles but also provides the first evidence that these behavior-dependent vocalizations change with social experience. This work furthers evidence for the utility of the prairie vole as a model for studying social impairments in neurodevelopmental disorders.

Table of Contents

INTRODUCTION 1

METHODS 7

Animals 7

Video & Audio Recording 7

Vocalization Extraction 8

Behavioral Scoring 9

Quantifying Behavior-Related Vocalizations 10

Coordinating Vocalizations with Behavioral Data 10

Statistics 11

RESULTS 11

Data Recording 11

Behavioral Results 12

Vocalization Results 14

Vocalizations within Behaviors 14

DISCUSSION 17

FUTURE DIRECTIONS 23

FIGURES 26

1. Experimental timeline and chamber setup 26

2. Behaviors of interest 27

3. Number of behaviors 28

4. Proportion of time spent in each behavior 29

5. Spectrograms and number of vocalizations 30

6. Vocal rates during behavior 31

7. Vocal shuffling procedure schematic 32

8. Vocal rates during behavior compared to chance 33

REFERENCES 34

About this Honors Thesis

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School	Emory College
Department	Neuroscience and Behavioral Biology
Degree	B.S.
Submission	Honors Thesis
Language	English
Research Field	Biology, Neuroscience
Keyword	prairie vole rodent behavior ultrasonic vocalizations vocalizations
Committee Chair / Thesis Advisor	Robert Liu, Emory University
Committee Members	Ellen Idler, Emory University Megan Massa, Emory University

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