Acoustical cues for perception of emotional vocalizations in rats

The ultrasonic vocalizations of rats can transmit affective states to listeners. For example, rats typically produce shorter calls in a higher frequency range in social situations (pleasant call: PC), whereas they emit longer calls with lower frequency in distress situations (distress call: DC). Knowing what acoustical features contribute to auditory discrimination between these two calls will help to better characterize auditory perception of vocalized sounds in rats. In turn, this could lead to better estimation of models for processing vocalizations in sensory systems in general. Here, using an operant discrimination procedure, we examined the impact of various acoustical features on discriminating emotional ultrasonic vocalizations. We did this by systematically swapping three features (frequency range, time duration, and residual frequency-modulation pattern) between two emotional calls. After rats were trained to discriminate between PC and DC, we presented probe stimuli that were synthesized calls with one or two acoustical features swapped, and examined if the rats judged these calls as either PC or DC. The results revealed that all features were important for discrimination between the two call types, but frequency range provided the most information for discrimination. This supports the hypothesis that while rats utilize all acoustical features to perceive emotional vocalizations, they considerably rely on frequency cues.