Complex Sound Perception in Mice

描述（由申请人提供）：拟定实验的总体目标是表征小鼠中的超声通信。老鼠被广泛用于听觉系统的研究，被认为是人类交流和听觉的良好模型，但我们对老鼠的声学世界的性质知之甚少。已知表征小鼠发声的人类会将叫声分为三到六种发声类型。拟议中的研究将通过直接询问小鼠是否能够区分或识别呼叫以及它们是否具有增强的感知处理呼叫类声音的能力来避免基于人类的分类。将记录青少年和成年人的超声波发声，然后将这些相同的发声用于清醒的行为小鼠的感知研究。这些研究在听觉领域是迫切需要的，因为许多实验室经常使用老鼠作为人类听觉和交流的模型，现在可以理解和利用这两个物种之间的差异和共性。

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): The overall objective of the proposed experiments is to characterize ultrasonic communication in mice. The mouse is widely used in studies of the auditory system and is thought to be a good model for human communication and audition, yet we know very little about the nature of the mouse's acoustic world. Humans characterizing the vocalizations of mice have been known to place the calls into anywhere from three to six total categories of vocalization types. The proposed studies will avoid human-based categorizations by asking the mouse directly whether they can discriminate or identify calls and whether they have enhanced capabilities for perceptually processing call-like sounds. Ultrasonic vocalizations from juveniles and adults will be recorded and then those same vocalizations will be used in perceptual studies in awake, behaving mice. These studies are urgently needed in the field of audition because so many laboratories regularly use the mouse as a model for hearing and communication in humans and now the differences and commonalities between the two species can be understood and utilized.