ROLE OF RAT ULTRASONIC VOCALIZATIONS IN SOCIAL LOCOMOTIVE BEHAVIOUR
ULTRASONIC VOCALIZATIONS, DEVOCALIZATION, LOCOMOTION, SPATIAL INTERACTION, MATING
RAT ULTRASONIC VOCALIZATIONS OF FUNDAMENTAL FREQUENCY IN THE 30-90KHZ RANGE KNOWN AS '50 KHZ' USVS, ARE RELATED TO APPETITIVE CONTEXTS SUCH AS SOCIAL INTERACTIONS, REWARD AND MATING. HOWEVER, HOW THESE VOCALIZATIONS CONTRIBUTE TO RAT SOCIAL BEHAVIOUR IS NOT COMPLETELY UNDERSTOOD. PREVIOUS DATA FROM OUR LAB SHOWS THAT THESE USVS ARE TIGHTLY SYNCHRONIZED WITH THE LOCOMOTION OF THE EMITTING RAT, THUS RAISING THE POSSIBILITY THAT VOCALIZATIONS COULD HELP RATS TRACK EACH OTHER IN THE DARK. WE HERE TESTED THIS HYPOTHESIS BY ASSESSING HOW DEVOCALIZING ONE OR BOTH RATS IN A MALE-FEMALE PAIR AFFECTED THEIR SPATIAL INTERACTIONS DURING MATING BEHAVIOR. METRICS OF SPATIAL CORRELATION, SUCH AS AVERAGE DISTANCE BETWEEN THE TWO ANIMALS AND NUMBER AND DURATION OF CHASES WERE ANALYZED FOR EACH RECORD. PRELIMINARY RESULTS SUGGEST THAT, ALTHOUGH DEVOCALIZATION DOES NOT INFLUENCE SUCCESS OF MATING, IT MAY SPECIFICALLY INTERFERE WITH FAST SPATIAL INTERACTIONS.