Courtship behaviour reveals temporal regularity is a critical social cue in mouse communication
While animals navigating the real world face a barrage of sensory input, their brains evolved to perceptually compress multidimensional information by selectively extracting the features relevant for survival. Notably, communication signals supporting social interactions in several mammalian species...
| Main Authors: | , , |
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
| Published: |
eLife Sciences Publications Ltd
2023-12-01
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| Series: | eLife |
| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | https://elifesciences.org/articles/86464 |
| _version_ | 1797374774944464896 |
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| author | Catherine Perrodin Colombine Verzat Daniel Bendor |
| author_facet | Catherine Perrodin Colombine Verzat Daniel Bendor |
| author_sort | Catherine Perrodin |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | While animals navigating the real world face a barrage of sensory input, their brains evolved to perceptually compress multidimensional information by selectively extracting the features relevant for survival. Notably, communication signals supporting social interactions in several mammalian species consist of acoustically complex sequences of vocalisations. However, little is known about what information listeners extract from such time-varying sensory streams. Here, we utilise female mice’s natural behavioural response to male courtship songs to identify the relevant acoustic dimensions used in their social decisions. We found that females were highly sensitive to disruptions of song temporal regularity and preferentially approached playbacks of intact over rhythmically irregular versions of male songs. In contrast, female behaviour was invariant to manipulations affecting the songs’ sequential organisation or the spectro-temporal structure of individual syllables. The results reveal temporal regularity as a key acoustic cue extracted by mammalian listeners from complex vocal sequences during goal-directed social behaviour. |
| first_indexed | 2024-03-08T19:10:34Z |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj.art-600c3571c3464999ae6dc5918e8497fd |
| institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
| issn | 2050-084X |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-03-08T19:10:34Z |
| publishDate | 2023-12-01 |
| publisher | eLife Sciences Publications Ltd |
| record_format | Article |
| series | eLife |
| spelling | doaj.art-600c3571c3464999ae6dc5918e8497fd2023-12-27T14:41:26ZengeLife Sciences Publications LtdeLife2050-084X2023-12-011210.7554/eLife.86464Courtship behaviour reveals temporal regularity is a critical social cue in mouse communicationCatherine Perrodin0Colombine Verzat1Daniel Bendor2https://orcid.org/0000-0001-6621-793XInstitute of Behavioural Neuroscience, Department of Experimental Psychology, University College London, London, United KingdomInstitute of Behavioural Neuroscience, Department of Experimental Psychology, University College London, London, United Kingdom; Idiap Research Institute, Martigny, SwitzerlandInstitute of Behavioural Neuroscience, Department of Experimental Psychology, University College London, London, United KingdomWhile animals navigating the real world face a barrage of sensory input, their brains evolved to perceptually compress multidimensional information by selectively extracting the features relevant for survival. Notably, communication signals supporting social interactions in several mammalian species consist of acoustically complex sequences of vocalisations. However, little is known about what information listeners extract from such time-varying sensory streams. Here, we utilise female mice’s natural behavioural response to male courtship songs to identify the relevant acoustic dimensions used in their social decisions. We found that females were highly sensitive to disruptions of song temporal regularity and preferentially approached playbacks of intact over rhythmically irregular versions of male songs. In contrast, female behaviour was invariant to manipulations affecting the songs’ sequential organisation or the spectro-temporal structure of individual syllables. The results reveal temporal regularity as a key acoustic cue extracted by mammalian listeners from complex vocal sequences during goal-directed social behaviour.https://elifesciences.org/articles/86464courtshipvocalisationacousticapproach behaviourauditorytemporal regularity |
| spellingShingle | Catherine Perrodin Colombine Verzat Daniel Bendor Courtship behaviour reveals temporal regularity is a critical social cue in mouse communication eLife courtship vocalisation acoustic approach behaviour auditory temporal regularity |
| title | Courtship behaviour reveals temporal regularity is a critical social cue in mouse communication |
| title_full | Courtship behaviour reveals temporal regularity is a critical social cue in mouse communication |
| title_fullStr | Courtship behaviour reveals temporal regularity is a critical social cue in mouse communication |
| title_full_unstemmed | Courtship behaviour reveals temporal regularity is a critical social cue in mouse communication |
| title_short | Courtship behaviour reveals temporal regularity is a critical social cue in mouse communication |
| title_sort | courtship behaviour reveals temporal regularity is a critical social cue in mouse communication |
| topic | courtship vocalisation acoustic approach behaviour auditory temporal regularity |
| url | https://elifesciences.org/articles/86464 |
| work_keys_str_mv | AT catherineperrodin courtshipbehaviourrevealstemporalregularityisacriticalsocialcueinmousecommunication AT colombineverzat courtshipbehaviourrevealstemporalregularityisacriticalsocialcueinmousecommunication AT danielbendor courtshipbehaviourrevealstemporalregularityisacriticalsocialcueinmousecommunication |