Acoustic characteristics of air puff-induced 22-kHz alarm calls in direct recordings

Alarm calls were induced in adult Wistar rats by an air puff. Emitted calls were digitized and directly recorded on a computer hard drive. The long-duration 22-kHz calls were emitted almost exclusively in series. Initial calls in the series tended to have the longest durations, higher frequency rang...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Neuroscience and biobehavioral reviews 2005, Vol.29 (8), p.1169-1180
Main Authors: Brudzynski, Stefan M., Holland, Giles
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
22-kHz vocalizations
Acoustics
Affectivity. Emotion
Air
Alarm calls
Algorithms
Animal behavior
Animal communication
Animals
Anxiety
Bat detector
Behavior, Animal
Biological and medical sciences
Defensive vocalization
Echolocation - physiology
Echolocation - radiation effects
Fundamental and applied biological sciences. Psychology
Male
Numerical Analysis, Computer-Assisted
Personality. Affectivity
Physical Stimulation
Predatory Behavior - physiology
Predatory Behavior - radiation effects
Psychology. Psychoanalysis. Psychiatry
Psychology. Psychophysiology
Rat
Rat colony
Rats
Rats, Wistar
Reaction Time
Reproducibility of Results
Sonographic analysis
Sound Spectrography - methods
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Summary:Alarm calls were induced in adult Wistar rats by an air puff. Emitted calls were digitized and directly recorded on a computer hard drive. The long-duration 22-kHz calls were emitted almost exclusively in series. Initial calls in the series tended to have the longest durations, higher frequency range, and the highest degree of frequency modulation, as compared to other calls. The frequency modulation always appeared as a downward sweep and seemed to represent a tuning of individual calls to a 3kHz communicatory band. Regardless of the maximum frequency, rats always reached approximately the same minimum frequency, common to all calls. Thus, the broader was the frequency range of a given call, the longer the call duration. It is postulated, therefore, that rats emit 22-kHz calls at the minimum possible ultrasonic frequency they are able to produce, which is synonymous with peak frequency. It is further postulated that production of alarm calls in series, with long call duration and the invariably low ultrasonic frequency, maximizes successful communication in dangerous situations. Exceptions to this rule were observed immediately following air puffs, suggesting that acoustic parameters of the initial calls may differ from the alarming properties of the remaining 22-kHz calls.
ISSN:0149-7634
1873-7528
DOI:10.1016/j.neubiorev.2005.04.007