Rats can acquire fear by observing conspecifics that express fear in the presence of conditioned fear stimuli. This process is called observational fear learning and is based on the social transmission of the demonstrator rat’s emotion and the induct...
The rat model is a useful tool for understanding peripheral and central mechanisms of laryngeal biology. Rats produce ultrasonic vocalizations (USVs) that have communicative intent and are altered by experimental conditions such as social environment...
We investigated the effects of prior stress on rats’ responses to 50-kHz (appetitive) and 22-kHz (aversive) ultrasonic playback. Rats were treated with 0, 1, 6 or 10 shocks (1 s, 1.0 mA each) and were exposed to playbacks the following day. Previous...
We examined sex differences in behavioral responses to fear-related learning through ultrasonic vocalization. Adult male and female rats of two inbred rat strains (WAG/Rij rats with genetic predisposition absence epilepsy, n = 25; and the minor subst...
Introduction: Ultrasonic vocalization (USV) can indicate affective states—including psychosocial stress—in mice and rats. However, stress-induced USV changes could be confounded by laboratory experimental variables such as the type of beh...
Prenatal maternal infection is associated with an increased risk of various neurodevelopmental disorders, including autism spectrum disorders (ASD). Maternal immune activation (MIA) can be experimentally induced by prenatal administration of polyinos...
Ultrasonic vocalizations (USVs) are known to reflect emotional processing, brain neurochemistry, and brain function. Collecting and processing USV data is manual, time-intensive, and costly, creating a significant bottleneck by limiting researchers’...
1 September 2020
Background: In recent years, ultrasonic vocalizations (USV) in pups has become established as a good tool for evaluating behaviors related to communication deficits and emotional states observed in autism spectrum disorder (ASD). Prenatal valproic ac...
Ultrasonic vocalizations (USVs) are well-established markers of motivational and emotional status. Recent work from our lab has provided novel evidence for a role of USVs in models of ethanol (EtOH) use. For instance, USV acoustic characteristics can...
This review summarizes all reported and suspected functions of ultrasonic vocalizations in infant and adult rats. The review leads to the conclusion that all types of ultrasonic vocalizations subserving all functions are vocal expressions of emotiona...
Fifty-kHz ultrasonic vocalizations (USVs) in response to an imitation of rough-and-tumble play (‘tickling’) have been associated with positive affective states and rewarding experience in the rat. This USV response can be used as a measure of inter-i...
A study of the ultrasonic vocalizations of several adult male BALB/c mice in the presence of a female, is undertaken in this study. A total of 179 distinct ultrasonic syllables referred to as “phonemes” are isolated, and in the resulting...
In mammals, common rules for the encoding of arousal and physical characteristics of the sender are suggested based on a similar vocal production apparatus. In this study, we want to investigate to what extent vocalizations of developing Mongolian ge...
Rats communicate using ultrasonic vocalizations (USV) throughout their life when confronted with emotionally stimulating situations, either negative or positive. The context of USV emission and the psychoacoustic characteristics of the vocalizations...
Neuropeptide S (NPS) is a peptide neurotransmitter that in animal studies promotes wakefulness and arousal with simultaneous anxiety reduction, in some inconsistency with results in humans. We examined the effect of NPS on rat ultrasonic vocalization...
The top-ranked cross-disorder risk gene CACNA1C is strongly associated with multiple neuropsychiatric dysfunctions. In a recent series of studies, we applied a genomically informed approach and contributed extensively to the behavioral characterizati...
Male predominance is a known feature of autism spectrum disorder (ASD). Although ASD mouse models can be useful for elucidating mechanisms underlying abnormal behaviors relevant to human ASD, suitable models to analyze sex differences in ASD pathogen...
Recording ultrasonic vocalizations (USVs) is a highly sensitive tool to study the dam–pup social relationships, and USV recordings have been used to study the effects of ethanol on pups. Gestational effects of ethanol on the emission of USVs in rat p...
In adults, vasopressin exerts an anxiogenic effect, but less is known about the perinatal period. As a sign of distress, rat pups emit ultrasonic vocalizations when they are separated from their mothers, known as maternal separation-induced ultrasoni...
Parkinson’s disease (PD) is a progressive, degenerative disorder that affects 10 million people worldwide. More than 90% of individuals with PD develop hypokinetic dysarthria, a motor speech disorder that impairs vocal communication and quality of li...
The current study was designed to investigate whether edible brown seaweed Ecklonia cava extracts exhibits analgesic effects in plantar incision and spared nerve injury (SNI) rats. To evaluate pain-related behavior, we performed the mechanical withdr...
Rats emit a variety of calls in the 40–80 kHz range (50 kHz calls). While these calls are generally associated with positive affect, it is unclear whether certain calls might be used selectively in certain contexts. To examine this, we looked at ultr...
Laboratory rats have excellent learning abilities and are often used in cognitive neuroscience research. The majority of rat studies are conducted on males, whereas females are usually overlooked. Here, we examined sex differences in behavior and tac...
Emerging evidence suggests that gestational or developmental vitamin D (DVD) deficiency is associated with an increased risk of autism spectrum disorder (ASD). ASD is a neurodevelopmental disorder characterized by impairments in social interaction, l...
Harpagophytum procumbens, also known as Devil’s Claw, has historically been used to treat a wide range of conditions, including pain and arthritis. The study was designed to investigate whether H. procumbens extracts exhibit analgesic effects in plan...
Ultrasonic vocalizations are among the oldest evolutionarily forms of animal communication. In order to study the communication patterns in an aversive social situation, we used a behavioral model in which one animal, the observer, is witnessing as h...
There is still no effective treatment that addresses the core symptoms of autism spectrum disorders (ASD), including social and communication deficits. A comprehensive body of evidence points to the cholinergic system, including alpha7–nicotini...
Drug addiction is thought to be driven by negative reinforcement, and it is thought that a shift from positive affect upon initial exposure to negative affect after chronic exposure to a drug is responsible for maintaining self-administration (SA) in...
Anxiety disorders are associated with a failure to sufficiently extinguish fear memories. The serotonergic system (5-hydroxytryptamine, 5-HT) with the 5-HT transporter (5-HTT, SERT) is strongly implicated in the regulation of anxiety and fear. In the...
Beta-phenylethylamine (β-PEA) is a well-known and widespread endogenous neuroactive trace amine found throughout the central nervous system in humans. In this study, we demonstrated the effects of β-PEA on psychomotor, rewarding, and reinforcing beha...
Endocrine-disrupting chemicals (EDCs) lead to endocrine and neurobehavioral changes, particularly due to developmental exposures during gestation and early life. Moreover, intergenerational and transgenerational phenotypic changes may be induced by g...
Rats, which are highly social animals, are known to communicate using ultrasonic vocalizations (USV) in different frequency ranges. Calls around 50 kHz are related to positive affective states and promote social interactions. Our previous work has sh...
Adult rats emit ultrasonic vocalizations (USVs) related to their affective states, potentially providing information about their subjective experiences during behavioral neuroscience experiments. If so, USVs might provide an important link between in...
Rats emit ultrasonic vocalizations (USVs) in situations with emotional valence, and USVs have also been proposed as a marker for memories conditioned to those situations. This study investigated whether USV emissions can predict and/or be associated...
Prenatal ethanol exposure can result in social deficits in humans and animals, including altered social interaction and poor communication. Rats exposed to ethanol prenatally show reduced play fighting, and a combination of prenatal ethanol exposure...
The Shenmen point (acupuncture point heart 7: HT7), located in the heart meridian, is frequently used to treat mental disorders, including drug addiction, anxiety, and depression. This study aimed to determine how HT7 regulates anxiety and negative e...
The appropriate display of social behaviors is essential for the well-being, reproductive success and survival of an individual. Deficits in social behavior are associated with impaired N-methyl-D-aspartate (NMDA) receptor-mediated neurotransmission....
Cannabinoid receptor 1 (CB1) signalling is critical for weight gain and for milk intake in newborn pups. This is important as in humans, low birth weight increases the risk for attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). Moreover, some children...
The regulation of sensory processing by centralized neuromodulatory systems can alter behavioral responses to social cues. Neuromodulatory systems such as the serotonergic neurons in the dorsal raphé nucleus (DRN) show heterogenous responses t...
Given that prebiotics have been shown to improve gut microbiota composition, gastrointestinal symptoms and select behaviors in autism spectrum disorder (ASD), we hypothesized that prebiotic supplementation would improve sociability, communication, an...
Since the realization that human emotional experiences and behavior evolved from mammalian ancestors and are evolutionary continuations of animal emotional behavior [...]
Inter-individual and sex differences in pain responses are recognized but their mechanisms are not well understood. This study was intended to provide the behavioral framework for analyses of pain mechanisms using fear extinction learning as a predic...
The Fawn-hooded rat has long been used as a model for various peripheral and central disorders and the data available indicate that the social behavior of this strain may be compromised. However, a thorough description of the Fawn-hooded rat is unava...
Valproic acid (VPA) is a widely used anticonvulsant and mood stabilizer and a known teratogen associated with neural tube defects and neurodevelopmental disorders, including autism spectrum disorder (ASD). Prenatal VPA exposure is widely used to mode...
Autism spectrum disorder (ASD) is a neurodevelopmental condition characterized by deficits in social interaction, impaired communication, and repetitive behaviors. ASD presents a 3:1 ratio of diagnosed boys and girls, raising the question regarding s...
In The Animal That Therefore I Am, Derrida wonders whether it would be possible to think of the discourse of the animal in musical terms, and if so, whether one could change the key, or the tone of the music, by inserting a “flat”—a “blue note” in ot...
Therapeutic activation of mechanoreceptors (MStim) in osteopathy, chiropractic and acupuncture has been in use for hundreds of years with a myriad of positive outcomes. It has been previously shown to modulate the firing rate of neurons in the ventra...
Acupuncture modulates the mesolimbic dopamine (DA) system; an area implicated in drug abuse. However, the mechanism by which peripheral sensory afferents, during acupuncture stimulation, modulate this system needs further investigation. The lateral h...
Although voice authentication is generally secure, voiceprint-based authentication methods have the drawback of being affected by environmental noise, long passphrases, and large registered samples. Therefore, we present a breakthrough idea for smart...
Indian gooseberry (Emblica officinalis fruit), also known as “Amla” is one of the oldest edible fruits known in India. It has also traditionally been used to treat inflammation, and as an analgesic to treat wounds. However, experimental evidence for...
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