Research shows that the subterranean colonial #tuco-tuco from #Argentina has a rich repertoire of #ultrasonic vocalizations zslpublications.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/... @elissazcameron.bsky.social @conservresearch.bsky.social @amcell.bsky.social @uhl-lab.bsky.social

I feel honored for the opportunity to present our recent work on the role of serotonin in regulating ultrasonic vocalizations in mice and rats across development at the 4th Ultrasonic Vocalization Conference tomorrow (online): ultrasonicvocalizations.net

As a longtime fan of cool papers in @currentbiology.bsky.social, I am really thrilled to see this out! This study sets the stage for understanding the origins of novel (vocal) behaviors. Big shout out to the main architects of this work @xmikezheng20.bsky.social and @cliffscience.bsky.social

Great @currentbiology.bsky.social study by @xmikezheng20.bsky.social @cliffscience.bsky.social @arkarupbanerjee.bsky.social 🧪🧠🐭🎶 Vocal repertoire expansion in singing mice by co-opting a conserved midbrain circuit node www.cell.com/current-biol...

programme of the 4th USV conference has been published. if you registered, you should have received an email for the conference (zoom) link. i am so excited to listen about these thrilling studies and to learn about different software assessing USV patterns. #USVConference

In mice, rats, and monkeys, a lack of serotonin in the brain leads to impaired maternal affiliation. @tianhuawang.bsky.social now showed that early social enrichment has ameliorating effects but leaves prominent reduction in pup ultrasonic calling untouched. rdcu.be/eJjtX & doi.org/10.1016/j.pn...

🐀 ultrasonic vocalizations be wildin' 🐀 @nicolasmathevon.bsky.social etc al. use @openacousticdevices.info to study how striped mice use USVs in the wild, new in @currentbiology.bsky.social See graphical abstract for summary of results (does the work for us 😇) 👇 #bioacoustics #prattle 💬

www.nature.com/articles/d41... #bioacoustics

Ultrasonic signals support a large-scale communication landscape in wild mice. 👇 New paper by the ENES Bioacoustics Research Team in @currentbiology.bsky.social authors.elsevier.com/a/1llMH3QW8S...

Fabrice de Chaumont et al. showcase how the integration of ultrasound recording and behavioral analysis can provide novel insight into mouse social behavior, linking ultrasonic calling to urination behavior. Another great contribution to our special issue: www.sciencedirect.com/special-issu...

Separation-induced ultrasonic vocalizations in mouse pups are modulated by attachment and tightly linked to the activity of hypothalamic oxytocin neurons. New @science.org study by Zelmanoff et al. from the @oyiz.bsky.social lab. www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...

late to share, but still exciting 🤩 our latest paper is now published tinyurl.com/2s4zecr9 ✨Ontogeny of tactile, vocal and kinship dynamics in rat pup huddling 👏 great work team @flor-bela.bsky.social @hughtakemoto.bsky.social @kinshiplab.bsky.social

Can we study placebo effects in rodents? At the @sipsplacebo.bsky.social‬ ECR Summer School in Kraków, Poland, I was proposing that we can do so by using ultrasonic vocalizations as a key element of the anticipatory response. Thanks for the great round table discussions, ‪@sfb-trr-289.bsky.social‬!

Fantastic urban ecology from ralphpeterson.bsky.social et al! 1. Fieldwork on free-ranging rats in NYC 2. Thermal imaging and ultrasonic audio 3. Social vocalizations across contexts “We transfer AI-driven methods…to the study of rats in the wild” doi.org/10.1101/2025... #prattle💬 #bioacoustics

Prenatal exposure to valproic acid reduces synaptic δ-catenin levels and disrupts ultrasonic vocalization in neonates https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2023.12.14.571709v1

A new study investigated the influence of the motor cortex on controlling ultrasonic vocalization in rats and how it is connected with the periaqueductal gray matter. https://www.eneuro.org/content/11/4/ENEURO.0452-23.2024.long

Next we looked at vocalizations w/ 6,000 hrs of RFID box audio (thanks @openacousticdevices.info!) + ML to find vocal events Takeaways: 1. Vocalization is seasonal: most in spring/summer when social groups are small 2. Wild mice use both audible squeaks & ultrasonic calls, often close together 4/8

Disruption of ultrasonic vocalization with systemic administration of the non-competitive N-methyl-d-aspartate receptor antagonist MK-801 in adult male mice https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2024.08.25.609588v1

J Neurosci: Foxp2 Mediates Sex Differences in Ultrasonic Vocalization by Rat Pups and Directs Order of Maternal.. http://bit.ly/XrJB3C

Very happy to share the latest from my postdoc‬! 10 yrs of mouse social networks + 1.25 yrs of acoustic data ➡️ insight into vocalization & sociality in a wild population of your favorite lab model 🐁 paper: bit.ly/4n93yyD data: bit.ly/4lfFBEk code: bit.ly/4kNnMwx #bioacoustics #neuroskyence 1/8

Good news! Our Behavioural Brain Research special issue on "Ultrasonic Communication in Rodents" is growing. Two new studies are available online! And an important update: The submission deadline has been extended: 31 October 2025 More information here: www.sciencedirect.com/special-issu...

Good news! Our Behavioural Brain Research special issue on "Ultrasonic Communication in Rodents" is growing. Two new studies are available online! 2) Report on the effects on paracetamol on behavioral and emotional responses displayed by rats in the orofacial formalin test

Good news! Our Behavioural Brain Research special issue on "Ultrasonic Communication in Rodents" is growing. Two new studies are available online! 1) Report on stress vulnerability in rats characterized by low positive affect as assessed through 50-kHz calls www.sciencedirect.com/special-issu...

Finally, we used a wireless ultrasonic mic to record vocalizations. We observed an amazing diversity of calls which have acoustic features that lay outside of the standard distribution reported in the lab. Also, we see interesting usage of the classically negative affect 22 kHz call during foraging.

It's hard to interpret observations like this because in the field we cannot control environmental factors that might be causing movement. Instead, we built 3D reconstructions of the environment using gaussian splatting with the goal of building causal models that can link environment + behavior.

We noticed periods of coordinated collective movement where some, but not all, animals appeared to participate. We implemented multi-animal tracking and a size-estimation model to show that larger rats move faster and are more likely to participate in collective bursts than smaller animals.

Thermal imaging worked great at our sites. High SNR and able to see through vegetation in parks.

We mined NYC311 reports of rat sightings to pick a time and place to perform the field studies. We settled on 3 recording locations in distinct environments (subway, park, sidewalk): Union Square Station, Central Park (Ramble), and W 125th St.

New preprint!

 tl;dr — We ran around late at night to record wild rats in NYC and figured out how to quantify their behavior and environment. 🧵 w/ Dima Batenkov, @zamakany.bsky.social, Emily Mackevicius www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

Working on ultrasonic vocalizations? Together with Dr. Elodie Ey, I am serving as guest editor for a Behavioural Brain Research special issue on Ultrasonic Communication in Rodents. We are more than happy to learn about your most recent discoveries. Please feel free to reach out to us.

📢 Teresa Klaus heroically classified >53000 USVs in wild🐭during courtship and mating. We found changes in their vocal composition, some USVs correlated with mating success, and there is evidence for vocal duetting! 🎶 @KLIVVWien @VetmeduniVienna🐭 ▶️ doi.org/10.1016/j.an...