Acoustic complexity of pup isolation calls in Mongolian hamsters: Three-frequency phenomena and chaos

Abstract Studying pup isolation calls of wild rodents provides background for developing new early-life animal models biomedical research and drug testing. This study discovered a highly complex acoustic phenotype in 4–5-day-old Mongolian hamsters Allocricetulus curtatus. We analyzed the structure 5,010 emitted broad range frequencies (sonic, below 20 kHz, ultrasonic, from to 128 kHz) by 23 pups during 2-min test trials, 1 trial per pup. In addition, we measured 5 body size parameters weight each The could contain up 3 independent fundamental their spectra, low (f0), medium (g0), high (h0), or purely consisted chaos which frequency not be tracked. By presence/absence combinations chaos, classified into 6 distinctive categories (low-frequency [LF]-f0, LF-chaos, high-frequency [HF]-g0, HF-h0, HF-g0 + h0, HF-chaos) estimated relative abundance category. Between categories, compared relationship with index. discuss results this data on acoustics reported other species rodents. conclude that such complexity hamster is unusual Decreased serves as good indicator autism spectrum disorders knockout mouse models, makes prospective model neurodevelopmental disorders.