Emission of categorized 50-kHz ultrasonic vocalizations in rats repeatedly treated with amphetamine or apomorphine: Possible relevance to drug-induced modifications in the emotional state

Publication date: 16 July 2018
Source:Behavioural Brain Research, Volume 347
Author(s): Nicola Simola, Giulia Costa
The emission of 50-kHz ultrasonic vocalizations (USVs) is increasingly emerging as a potential behavioral marker of the subjective effects that psychoactive drugs elicit in rats. However, multiple categories of 50-kHz USVs have been identified, which are thought to possess different behavioral significance. Besides, limited information is available on how psychoactive drugs affect the emission of categorized 50-kHz USVs. To further elucidate this issue, we evaluated the numbers of multiple categories of 50-kHz USVs emitted by rats repeatedly treated with amphetamine (1 or 2 mg/kg, i.p.) or apomorphine (2 or 4 mg/kg, i.p.), two drugs that elicit similar and dissimilar subjective effects. Amphetamine- and apomorphine-treated rats emitted patterns of categorized 50-kHz USVs that varied according to the drug administered, drug dose, and number of drug administrations. Nevertheless, the numbers of several categories of 50-kHz USVs were positively correlated with the number of total calls emitted (i.e., the sum of categorized 50-kHz USVs). Moreover, a marked interindividual variability in the emission of categorized 50-kHz USVs was observed. Taken together, the present results may be relevant to further elucidating the interplay between calling of the 50-kHz USVs group and psychopharmacological profile of drugs.

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