The perception of ultrasonic vocalizations by laboratory mice following intense noise exposures.

Noise-induced hearing loss interacts with age, sex, and listening conditions to affect individuals' perception of ecologically relevant stimuli like speech. The present experiments assessed the impact of age and sex on vocalization detection by noise-exposed mice trained to detect a downsweep or complex ultrasonic vocalization in quiet or in the presence of a noise background. Daily thresholds before and following intense noise exposure were collected longitudinally and compared across several factors.

Sources of variability in auditory brainstem response thresholds in a mouse model of noise-induced hearing loss.

Numerous and non-acoustic experimental factors can potentially influence experimental outcomes in animal models when measuring the effects of noise exposures. Subject-related factors, including species, strain, age, sex, body weight, and post-exposure measurement timepoints, influence the observed hearing deficits. Experimenter effects, such as experience with experimental techniques and animal handling, may also factor into reported thresholds.

Effects of Noise Exposure and Aging on Behavioral Tone Detection in Quiet and Noise by Mice.

Aging leads to degeneration of the peripheral and central auditory systems, hearing loss, and difficulty understanding sounds in noise. Aging is also associated with changes in susceptibility to or recovery from damaging noise exposures, although the effects of the interaction between acute noise exposure and age on the perception of sounds are not well studied. We tested these effects in the CBA/CaJ mouse model of age-related hearing loss using operant conditioning procedures before and after noise exposure and longitudinally measured changes in their sensitivity for detecting tones in quiet or noise backgrounds.

Blast trauma affects production and perception of mouse ultrasonic vocalizations.

Blast trauma from explosions affects hearing and communication in a significant proportion of soldiers. Many veterans report difficulty communicating, especially in noisy and reverberant environments, which contributes to complex mental health problems including anxiety and depression. However, the relationship between communication and perceptual problems after a blast has received little scientific attention.

Dimensionally Specific Attention Capture in Birds Performing Auditory Streaming Task.

Previous studies in budgerigars (Melopsittacus undulatus) have indicated that they experience attention capture in a qualitatively similar way to humans. Here, we apply a similar objective auditory streaming paradigm, using modified budgerigar vocalizations instead of ABAB-… patterned pure tones, in the sound sequences. The birds were trained to respond to deviants in the target stream while ignoring the distractors in the background stream.

Long term changes to auditory sensitivity following blast trauma in mice.

Blast trauma is a common acoustic/physical insult occurring in modern warfare. Twenty percent of active duty military come into close proximity to explosions and experience mild to severe sensory deficits. The prevalence of such injuries is high but correlating auditory sensitivity changes with the initial insult is difficult because injury and evaluations are often separated by long time periods.

Linking anatomical and physiological markers of auditory system degeneration with behavioral hearing assessments in a mouse (Mus musculus) model of age-related hearing loss.

Age-related hearing loss is a very common sensory disability, affecting one in three older adults. Establishing a link between anatomical, physiological, and behavioral markers of presbycusis in a mouse model can improve the understanding of this disorder in humans. We measured age-related hearing loss for a variety of acoustic signals in quiet and noisy environments using an operant conditioning procedure and investigated the status of peripheral structures in CBA/CaJ mice.

Attention capture in birds performing an auditory streaming task.

Numerous animal models have been used to investigate the neural mechanisms of auditory processing in complex acoustic environments, but it is unclear whether an animal's auditory attention is functionally similar to a human's in processing competing auditory scenes. Here we investigated the effects of attention capture in birds performing an objective auditory streaming paradigm. The classical ABAB… patterned pure tone sequences were modified and used for the task.

Best sensitivity of temporal modulation transfer functions in laboratory mice matches the amplitude modulation embedded in vocalizations.

The perception of spectrotemporal changes is crucial for distinguishing between acoustic signals, including vocalizations. Temporal modulation transfer functions (TMTFs) have been measured in many species and reveal that the discrimination of amplitude modulation suffers at rapid modulation frequencies. TMTFs were measured in six CBA/CaJ mice in an operant conditioning procedure, where mice were trained to discriminate an 800 ms amplitude modulated white noise target from a continuous noise background.

Perception of Ultrasonic Vocalizations by Socially Housed and Isolated Mice.

It is currently unclear whether mice use their ultrasonic vocalizations (USVs) for communication purposes. It is also unknown whether mice require previous experience with USVs to understand conspecifics. There is some evidence that experience changes the perception of juvenile USVs; however, it is unclear whether similar plasticity also occurs for adult USVs.

Sex differences in auditory brainstem response audiograms from vasopressin-deficient Brattleboro and wild-type Long-Evans rats.

Rats are highly social creatures that produce ultrasonic vocalizations (USVs) during social interactions. Brattleboro rats, a Long-Evans derived rat that lacks vasopressin (AVP) due to a mutation in the Avp gene, exhibit atypical social behavior, including fewer USVs with altered spectrotemporal characteristics during social interactions. It is unclear why Brattleboro rats produce atypical USVs, but one factor could be differences in auditory acuity between them and wild-type Long Evans rats with functional vasopressin.

The effects of age and sex on the detection of pure tones by adult CBA/CaJ mice (Mus musculus).

Age-related hearing loss (ARHL) is a neurodegenerative disorder characterized by a gradual decrease in hearing sensitivity. Previous electrophysiological and behavioral studies have demonstrated that the CBA/CaJ mouse strain is an appropriate model for the late-onset hearing loss found in humans. However, few studies have characterized hearing in these mice behaviorally using longitudinal methodologies.

Social isolation produces no effect on ultrasonic vocalization production in adult female CBA/CaJ mice.

Mice produce ultrasonic vocalizations (USVs) in a wide variety of social contexts, including courtship, investigation, and territorial defense. Despite the belief that mouse USVs are innate, social experience may be necessary for mice to learn the appropriate situation to emit USVs. Mouse USVs have been divided into categories based on their spectrotemporal parameters, but it is currently unclear if social experience changes these parameters (e.

Effects of Non-traumatic Noise and Conductive Hearing Loss on Auditory System Function.

The effects of traumatic noise-exposure and deafening on auditory system function have received a great deal of attention. However, lower levels of noise as well as temporary conductive hearing loss also have consequences on auditory physiology and hearing. Here we review how abnormal acoustic experience at early ages affects the ascending and descending auditory pathways, as well as hearing behavior.

Behavioral measurements of auditory streaming and build-up by budgerigars ().

The perception of the build-up of auditory streaming has been widely investigated in humans, while it is unknown whether animals experience a similar perception when hearing high (H) and low (L) tonal pattern sequences. The paradigm previously used in European starlings () was adopted in two experiments to address the build-up of auditory streaming in budgerigars (). In experiment 1, different numbers of repetitions of low-high-low triplets were used in five conditions to study the build-up process.

Preference in female laboratory mice is influenced by social experience.

Mice must perceive and interpret the signals they are presented with to evaluate potential mates, and should show a preference for high quality conspecifics. The present experiment was designed to investigate preference for acoustic, olfactory, and acoustic + olfactory signals in laboratory mice. Eighteen female CBA/CaJ mice, socially housed or isolated, were tested to evaluate preference for signals produced by males.

CBA/CaJ mouse ultrasonic vocalizations depend on prior social experience.

Mouse ultrasonic vocalizations (USVs) have variable spectrotemporal features, which researchers use to parse them into different categories. USVs may be important for communication, but it is unclear whether the categories that researchers have developed are relevant to the mice. Instead, other properties such as the number, rate, peak frequency, or bandwidth of the vocalizations may be important cues that the mice are using to interpret the nature of the social interaction.

Intensity difference limens in adult CBA/CaJ mice (Mus musculus).

Mice have emerged as important models of auditory perception and acoustic communication. To study and model complex sound perception and communication, basic hearing abilities have to be established, yet intensity difference limens have not been measured in CBA/CaJ mice. Nine mice were trained using operant conditioning procedures with positive reinforcement to discriminate sound intensity across frequencies.

Correction: Experience with speech sounds is not necessary for cue trading by budgerigars (Melopsittacus undulatus).

[This corrects the article DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.

Experience with speech sounds is not necessary for cue trading by budgerigars (Melopsittacus undulatus).

The influence of experience with human speech sounds on speech perception in budgerigars, vocal mimics whose speech exposure can be tightly controlled in a laboratory setting, was measured. Budgerigars were divided into groups that differed in auditory exposure and then tested on a cue-trading identification paradigm with synthetic speech. Phonetic cue trading is a perceptual phenomenon observed when changes on one cue dimension are offset by changes in another cue dimension while still maintaining the same phonetic percept.

Discrimination of frequency modulated sweeps by mice.

Mice often produce ultrasonic vocalizations (USVs) that sweep upwards in frequency from around 60 to around 80 kHz and downwards in frequency from 80 to 60 kHz. Whether or not these USVs are used for communication purposes is still unknown. Here, mice were trained and tested using operant conditioning procedures and positive reinforcement to discriminate between synthetic upsweeps and downsweeps.

Individual differences in food cue responsivity are associated with acute and repeated cocaine-induced vocalizations, but not cue-induced vocalizations.

Rationale: Individuals prone to attribute incentive salience to food-associated stimuli ("cues") are also more sensitive to cues during drug seeking and drug taking. This may be due in part to a difference in sensitivity to the affective or other stimulus properties of the drug. In rats, these properties are associated with 50-kHz ultrasonic vocalizations (USVs), in that they are elicited during putative positive affective and motivational states, including in response to drugs of abuse.

The effects of aging and sex on detection of ultrasonic vocalizations by adult CBA/CaJ mice (Mus musculus).

Mice are frequently used as animal models for human hearing research, yet their auditory capabilities have not been fully explored. Previous studies have established auditory threshold sensitivities for pure tone stimuli in CBA/CaJ mice using ABR and behavioral methodologies. Little is known about how they perceive their own ultrasonic vocalizations (USVs), and nothing is known about how aging influences this perception.

Cues for auditory stream segregation of birdsong in budgerigars and zebra finches: Effects of location, timing, amplitude, and frequency.

Deciphering the auditory scene is a problem faced by many organisms. However, when faced with numerous overlapping sounds from multiple locations, listeners are still able to attribute the individual sound objects to their individual sound-producing sources. Here, the characteristics of sounds important for integrating versus segregating in birds were determined.

Audiograms, gap detection thresholds, and frequency difference limens in cannabinoid receptor 1 knockout mice.

The cannabinoid receptor 1 (CB1R) is found at several stages in the auditory pathway, but its role in hearing is unknown. Hearing abilities were measured in CB1R knockout mice and compared to those of wild-type mice. Operant conditioning and the psychophysical Method of Constant Stimuli were used to measure audiograms, gap detection thresholds, and frequency difference limens in trained mice using the same methods and stimuli as in previous experiments.