Acoustic camera system for measuring ultrasound communication in mice
Jumpei Matsumoto,
Kouta Kanno,
Masahiro Kato,
Hiroshi Nishimaru,
Tsuyoshi Setogawa,
Choijiljav Chinzorig,
Tomohiro Shibata,
Hisao Nishijo
Affiliations
Jumpei Matsumoto
Department of System Emotional Science, Faculty of Medicine, University of Toyama, Toyama 930-0194, Japan; Research Center for Idling Brain Science, University of Toyama, Toyama 930-0194, Japan; Corresponding author
Kouta Kanno
Laboratory of Neuroscience, Course of Psychology, Department of Humanities, Faculty of Law, Economics and the Humanities, Kagoshima University, Kagoshima 890-0065, Japan; Corresponding author
Masahiro Kato
Katou Acoustics Consultant Office, Yokohama 225-0021, Japan; Osawa Memorial Institute of Architectural Environmental Engineering, Kanto Gakuin University, Yokohama 236-8501, Japan
Hiroshi Nishimaru
Department of System Emotional Science, Faculty of Medicine, University of Toyama, Toyama 930-0194, Japan; Research Center for Idling Brain Science, University of Toyama, Toyama 930-0194, Japan
Tsuyoshi Setogawa
Department of System Emotional Science, Faculty of Medicine, University of Toyama, Toyama 930-0194, Japan; Research Center for Idling Brain Science, University of Toyama, Toyama 930-0194, Japan
Choijiljav Chinzorig
Department of System Emotional Science, Faculty of Medicine, University of Toyama, Toyama 930-0194, Japan
Tomohiro Shibata
Department of Human Intelligence Systems, Graduate School of Life Science and Systems Engineering, Kyushu Institute of Technology, Kitakyushu 808-0196, Japan
Hisao Nishijo
Department of System Emotional Science, Faculty of Medicine, University of Toyama, Toyama 930-0194, Japan; Research Center for Idling Brain Science, University of Toyama, Toyama 930-0194, Japan
Summary: To investigate biological mechanisms underlying social behaviors and their deficits, social communication via ultrasonic vocalizations (USVs) in mice has received considerable attention as a powerful experimental model. The advances in sound localization technology have facilitated the analysis of vocal interactions between multiple mice. However, existing sound localization systems are built around distributed-microphone arrays, which require a special recording arena and long processing time. Here, we report a novel acoustic camera system, USVCAM, which enables simpler and faster USV localization and assignment. The system comprises recently developed USV segmentation algorithms with a modification for overlapping vocalizations that results in high accuracy. Using USVCAM, we analyzed USV communications in a conventional home cage, and demonstrated novel vocal interactions in female ICR mice under a resident-intruder paradigm. The extended applicability and usability of USVCAM may facilitate future studies investigating typical and atypical vocal communication and social behaviors, as well as the underlying mechanisms.
