| olfactory responses of neotropical short-tailed singing mice, scotinomys teguina, to odors of the mid-ventral sebaceous gland: discrimination of conspecifics, gender, and female reproductive condition. | we examined the olfactory communication of the neotropical short-tailed singing mouse, scotinomys teguina, by investigating whether s. teguina responded to odors produced by the mid-ventral sebaceous gland of conspecifics. females spent significantly more time investigating male odor than an odorless stimulus or a female odor. males spent significantly more time investigating female odor than an odorless stimulus, but not that of a male odor. this latter result does not seem to be explained by d ... | 2008 | 18256880 |
| conservation and diversity of foxp2 expression in muroid rodents: functional implications. | foxp2, the first gene causally linked to a human language disorder, is implicated in song acquisition, production, and perception in oscine songbirds, the evolution of speech and language in hominids, and the evolution of echolocation in bats. despite the evident relevance of foxp2 to vertebrate acoustic communication, a comprehensive description of neural expression patterns is currently lacking in mammals. here we use immunocytochemistry to systematically describe the neural distribution of fo ... | 2009 | 18972576 |
| [population ecology of the mouse peromyscus mexicanus (rodentia: muridae) in poas volcano national park, costa rica]. | the mexican deer mouse has been reported as an abundant wild mouse in costa rica; nevertheless, it has not been studied as well as other peromyscus species. thirty sherman traps were placed on three habitats during six consecutive days of each month, from march 2002 through april 2003 in three sites of pods volcano national park, costa rica. a total of 2 393 mice were captured. other species such as reithrodontomys creper, r. rodriguezi, scotinomys teguina and oryzomys devius (muridae) were also ... | 2007 | 19086405 |
| beating the boojum: comparative approaches to the neurobiology of social behavior. | neuropeptides coordinate complex social behaviors important to both basic and applied science. understanding such phenomena requires supplementing the powerful tools of behavioral neuroscience with less conventional model species and more rigorous evolutionary analyses. we review studies that use comparative methods to examine the roles of vasopressin and oxytocin in mammalian social behavior. we find that oxytocin and vasopressin receptor distributions are remarkably variable within species. st ... | 2010 | 19591851 |
| central vasopressin and oxytocin receptor distributions in two species of singing mice. | the neuropeptides arginine vasopressin (avp) and oxytocin (ot) are key modulators of vertebrate sociality. although some general behavioral functions of avp and ot are broadly conserved, the detailed consequences of peptide release seem to be regulated by species-specific patterns of receptor distribution. we used autoradiography to characterize central vasopressin 1a receptor (v1ar) and ot receptor (otr) distributions in two species of singing mice, ecologically specialized central american rod ... | 2009 | 19637308 |
| geographic variation in the songs of neotropical singing mice: testing the relative importance of drift and local adaptation. | patterns of geographic variation in communication systems can provide insight into the processes that drive phenotypic evolution. although work in birds, anurans, and insects demonstrates that acoustic signals are sensitive to diverse selective and stochastic forces, processes that shape variation in mammalian vocalizations are poorly understood. we quantified geographic variation in the advertisement songs of sister species of singing mice, montane rodents with a unique mode of vocal communicat ... | 2010 | 20148958 |
| stress coping styles and singing behavior in the short-tailed singing mouse (scotinomys teguina). | stress coping styles have been characterized as a proactive/reactive dichotomy in laboratory and domesticated animals. in this study, we examined the prevalence of proactive/reactive stress coping styles in wild-caught short-tailed singing mice (scotinomys teguina). we compared stress responses to spontaneous singing, a social and reproductive behavior that characterizes this species. to establish proactive/reactive profiles for singing mice, we measured exploratory and anxiety behavior using an ... | 2010 | 20206628 |
| androgens modulate song effort and aggression in neotropical singing mice. | androgens are an important class of steroid hormones involved in modulating the expression and evolution of male secondary sex characters. vocalizations used in the context of aggression and mate attraction are among the most elaborate and diverse androgen-dependent animal displays as reflected in a rich tradition of studies on bird song and anuran calls. male alston's singing mice (scotinomys teguina) commonly emit trilled songs that appear to function in male-male aggression. in this study, we ... | 2010 | 21035450 |
| agonistic character displacement in social cognition of advertisement signals. | interspecific aggression between sibling species may enhance discrimination of competitors when recognition errors are costly, but proximate mechanisms mediating increased discriminative ability are unclear. we studied behavioral and neural mechanisms underlying responses to conspecific and heterospecific vocalizations in alston's singing mouse (scotinomys teguina), a species in which males sing to repel rivals. we performed playback experiments using males in allopatry and sympatry with a domin ... | 2017 | 27757700 |
| vocal ontogeny in neotropical singing mice (scotinomys). | isolation calls produced by dependent young are a fundamental form of communication. for species in which vocal signals remain important to adult communication, the function and social context of vocal behavior changes dramatically with the onset of sexual maturity. the ontogenetic relationship between these distinct forms of acoustic communication is surprisingly under-studied. we conducted a detailed analysis of vocal development in sister species of neotropical singing mice, scotinomys teguin ... | 2014 | 25469986 |
| variation in the density of oxytocin receptors in the brain as mechanism of adaptation to specific social and reproductive strategies. | most species have predominant forms of social and reproductive behavior driven by many years of selection pressures and evolution. for example, rodent species can live in small or large groups, behave more tolerant or aggressively toward conspecifics (including newborns), and form or not bonds with other members of the group (including sexual partners). any of those behavioral adaptations could result in good fitness for the species, but could also require compromises such as sharing resources, ... | 2020 | 31734142 |
| a comparative characterization of laryngeal anatomy in the singing mouse. | sexual displays are some of the most dramatic and varied behaviors that have been documented. the elaboration of such behaviors often relies on the modification of existing morphology. to understand how display elaboration arises, we analyzed the laryngeal anatomy of three species of mice that vary in the presence and complexity of their vocal displays. mice and rats have a specialized larynx that enables them to produce both low-frequency "audible" sounds, perhaps using vocal fold vibration, as ... | 2020 | 32996145 |
| motor cortical control of vocal interaction in neotropical singing mice. | like many adaptive behaviors, acoustic communication often requires rapid modification of motor output in response to sensory cues. however, little is known about the sensorimotor transformations that underlie such complex natural behaviors. in this study, we examine vocal exchanges in alston's singing mouse (scotinomys teguina). we find that males modify singing behavior during social interactions on a subsecond time course that resembles both traditional sensorimotor tasks and conversational s ... | 2019 | 30819963 |
| adiposity signals predict vocal effort in alston's singing mice. | advertisement displays often seem extravagant and expensive, and are thought to depend on the body condition of a signaller. nevertheless, we know little about how signallers adjust effort based on condition, and few studies find a strong relationship between natural variation in condition and display. to examine the relationship between body condition and signal elaboration more fully, we characterized physiological condition and acoustic displays in a wild rodent with elaborate vocalizations, ... | 2018 | 29695445 |