ArticlePloS one2012
Of mice, birds, and men: the mouse ultrasonic song system has some features similar to humans and song-learning birds.
Article in PloS one, 2012. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 141 papers.
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Who cites it
141 citing papers in PubMed, 297 citations in OpenAlex.
- Disruption of ultrasonic vocalizations with systemic administration of the non-competitive N-methyl-D-aspartate receptor antagonist MK-801 in adult male mice.The international journal of neuropsychopharmacology · 2026Article
- Activity-dependent development of vocal circuits in the neonatal rodent forebrain.EMBO reports · 2026Article
- Whole-Brain Mapping of Neuronal Activity Associated with Vocal Socialization Behaviors in Adult Mice.eNeuro · 2026Article
- Insights into Convergent Evolution From Studying Amino Acid Patterns in Independent Lineages of Birds.Genome biology and evolution · 2025Article
- Alpha-synuclein overexpression does not cause vocalization deficits in a mouse model of parkinsonism.Biology open · 2025Article
- A humanized NOVA1 splicing factor alters mouse vocal communications.Nature communications · 2025Article
- Hemispheric Asymmetry of Intracortical Myelin Orientation in the Mouse Auditory Cortex.The European journal of neuroscience · 2025Article
- California mice (Peromyscus californicus) adjust mouth movements for vocal production during early postnatal development.BMC biology · 2024Article
- Acoustic complexity of pup isolation calls in Mongolian hamsters: 3-frequency phenomena and chaos.Current zoology · 2024Article
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- Automated behavioral analysis reveals that mice employ a bait-and-switch escape mechanism to de-escalate social conflict.bioRxiv : the preprint server for biology · 2024Article
- Is song processing distinct and special in the auditory cortex?Nature reviews. Neuroscience · 2023Review
- Cortical circuits modulate mouse social vocalizations.Science advances · 2023Article
- Predictive Mouse Ultrasonic Vocalization Sequences: Uncovering Behavioral Significance, Auditory Cortex Neuronal Preferences, and Social-Experience-Driven Plasticity.The Journal of neuroscience : the official journal of the Society for Neuroscience · 2023Article
- Bats possess the anatomical substrate for a laryngeal motor cortex.bioRxiv : the preprint server for biology · 2023Article
- TCF7L2 acts as a molecular switch in midbrain to control mammal vocalization through its DNA binding domain but not transcription activation domain.Molecular psychiatry · 2023Article
- Changes in ultrasonic vocalizations after unilateral cerebral ischemia in a rat stroke model.Behavioural brain research · 2023Article
- Listening to your partner: serotonin increases male responsiveness to female vocal signals in mice.Frontiers in human neuroscience · 2023Article
- Delayed cortical development in mice with a neural specific deletion of β1 integrin.Frontiers in neuroscience · 2023Article
81 more citing papers are in PubMed but not listed here.
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
3 authors at 2 institutions in 1 country.
Funding
Abstract
Humans and song-learning birds communicate acoustically using learned vocalizations. The characteristic features of this social communication behavior include vocal control by forebrain motor areas, a direct cortical projection to brainstem vocal motor neurons, and dependence on auditory feedback to develop and maintain learned vocalizations. These features have so far not been found in closely related primate and avian species that do not learn vocalizations. Male mice produce courtship ultrasonic vocalizations with acoustic features similar to songs of song-learning birds. However, it is assumed that mice lack a forebrain system for vocal modification and that their ultrasonic vocalizations are innate. Here we investigated the mouse song system and discovered that it includes a motor cortex region active during singing, that projects directly to brainstem vocal motor neurons and is necessary for keeping song more stereotyped and on pitch. We also discovered that male mice depend on auditory feedback to maintain some ultrasonic song features, and that sub-strains with differences in their songs can match each other's pitch when cross-housed under competitive social conditions. We conclude that male mice have some limited vocal modification abilities with at least some neuroanatomical features thought to be unique to humans and song-learning birds. To explain our findings, we propose a continuum hypothesis of vocal learning.
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Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.