Why do mice squeak? Toward a better understanding of defensive vocalization
Julia Ruat,
Andreas J. Genewsky,
Daniel E. Heinz,
Sebastian F. Kaltwasser,
Newton S. Canteras,
Michael Czisch,
Alon Chen,
Carsten T. Wotjak
Affiliations
Julia Ruat
Department Stress Neurobiology and Neurogenetics, Max Planck Institute of Psychiatry, 80804 Munich, Germany; Research Group Neuronal Plasticity, Max Planck Institute of Psychiatry, 80804 Munich, Germany; International Max Planck Research School for Translational Psychiatry (IMPRS-TP), 80804 Munich, Germany
Andreas J. Genewsky
Research Group Neuronal Plasticity, Max Planck Institute of Psychiatry, 80804 Munich, Germany
Daniel E. Heinz
Research Group Neuronal Plasticity, Max Planck Institute of Psychiatry, 80804 Munich, Germany; Max Planck School of Cognition, Max Planck Institute for Human Cognitive and Brain Sciences, 04303 Leipzig, Germany
Sebastian F. Kaltwasser
Research Group Neuronal Plasticity, Max Planck Institute of Psychiatry, 80804 Munich, Germany
Newton S. Canteras
Department of Anatomy, Institute of Biomedical Sciences, University of São Paulo, São Paulo 05508-000, Brazil
Michael Czisch
Scientific Core Unit Neuroimaging, Max Planck Institute of Psychiatry, 80804 Munich, Germany
Alon Chen
Department Stress Neurobiology and Neurogenetics, Max Planck Institute of Psychiatry, 80804 Munich, Germany; Department of Neurobiology, Weizmann Institute of Science, Rehovot 76100, Israel
Carsten T. Wotjak
Research Group Neuronal Plasticity, Max Planck Institute of Psychiatry, 80804 Munich, Germany; Corresponding author
Summary: Although mice mostly communicate in the ultrasonic range, they also emit audible calls. We demonstrate that mice selectively bred for high anxiety-related behavior (HAB) have a high disposition for emitting sonic calls when caught by the tail. The vocalization was unrelated to pain but sensitive to anxiolytics. As revealed by manganese-enhanced MRI, HAB mice displayed an increased tonic activity of the periaqueductal gray (PAG). Selective inhibition of the dorsolateral PAG not only reduced anxiety-like behavior but also completely abolished sonic vocalization. Calls were emitted at a fundamental frequency of 3.8 kHz, which falls into the hearing range of numerous predators. Indeed, playback of sonic vocalization attracted rats if associated with a stimulus mouse. If played back to HAB mice, sonic calls were repellent in the absence of a conspecific but attractive in their presence. Our data demonstrate that sonic vocalization attracts both predators and conspecifics depending on the context.
