Acoustic camera system for measuring ultrasound communication in mice

To investigate biological mechanisms underlying social behaviors and their deficits, social communication via ultrasonic vocalizations (USVs) in mice has received considerable attention as a powerful experimental model. The advances in sound localization technology have facilitated the analysis of vocal interactions between multiple mice. However, existing sound localization systems are built around distributed-microphone arrays, which require a special recording arena and long processing time. Here, we report a novel acoustic camera system, USVCAM, which enables simpler and faster USV localization and assignment. The system comprises recently developed USV segmentation algorithms with a modification for overlapping vocalizations that results in high accuracy. Using USVCAM, we analyzed USV communications in a conventional home cage, and demonstrated novel vocal interactions in female ICR mice under a resident-intruder paradigm. The extended applicability and usability of USVCAM may facilitate future studies investigating typical and atypical vocal communication and social behaviors, as well as the underlying mechanisms.