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Updated: Jun 25, 2025

Recording Mouse Ultrasonic Vocalizations to Evaluate Social Communication
Published on: June 5, 2016
Crows "count" the number of self-generated vocalizations
Diana A Liao1, Katharina F Brecht1, Lena Veit2
1Animal Physiology, Institute of Neurobiology, University of Tübingen, Auf der Morgenstelle 28, 72076 Tübingen, Germany.
Abstract:
Producing a specific number of vocalizations with purpose requires a sophisticated combination of numerical abilities and vocal control. Whether this capacity exists in animals other than humans is yet unknown. We show that crows can flexibly produce variable numbers of one to four vocalizations in response to arbitrary cues associated with numerical values. The acoustic features of the first vocalization of a sequence were predictive of the total number of vocalizations, indicating a planning process. Moreover, the acoustic features of vocal units predicted their order in the sequence and could be used to read out counting errors during vocal production.
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