Male rats emit aversive 44-kHz ultrasonic vocalizations during prolonged Pavlovian fear conditioning.

ABSTRACT: Rats are believed to communicate their emotional state by emitting two distinct types of ultrasonic vocalizations. The first is long '22-kHz' vocalizations (>300 ms, <32-kHz) with constant frequency, signaling aversive states, and the second is short '50-kHz' calls (<150 ms, >32 kHz), often frequency-modulated, in appetitive situations. Here, we describe aversive vocalizations emitted at a higher pitch by male Wistar and spontaneously hypertensive rats (SHR) in an intensified aversive state - prolonged fear conditioning. These calls, which we named '44-kHz' vocalizations, are long (>150 ms), generally at a constant frequency (usually within 35-50-kHz range) and have an overall spectrographic image similar to 22-kHz calls. Some 44-kHz vocalizations are comprised of both 22-kHz-like and 44-k

SUBMITTER: Olszynski KH 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC11630816 | biostudies-literature | 2024 Dec

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature