LAUSR

Male mice produce ultrasonic courtship vocalizations (UCVs) which have been used as a model in the study of various human social and vocal behaviors. However, little is known about the features of UCVs that are important for their perception, and would therefore be expected to show meaningful variability following experimental manipulations. Here, we show that the temporal structure of UCV bouts are remarkably consistent across C57Bl6/J mice. Specifically, we find that mice produce two UCV subtypes which arise from unique respiratory articulations, and three discrete classes of silent boundaries which also result from distinct respiratory activity patterns. In addition, we demonstrate that these UCV and boundary types occur in a highly consistent pattern across mice, and that UCV temporal structure displays evidence of rudimentary motor planning. Finally, while adult mice produce their UCVs via an egressive pulmonic phonation mechanism, neonatal mice were found to utilize an ingressive pulmonic airstream ...