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Social behavior and communication in a laboratory rat and autism models
Tučková, Klára ; Petrásek, Tomáš (advisor) ; Pohanová, Petra (referee)
Social behavior of the brown rat as an animal living in a hierarchical collonies is very diverse and developed, which remains the same with the domestic laboratory rat. Rats communicate not only via odors, but also via various types of vocalizations, which express stress, pain or anxiety or on the other hand positive emotions and also communication during any social contact. Because of complex social behaviour and communication, rat is a suitable model organism for research of human mental disorders such as autism. This thesis gives an overview of natural social behaviour of rats, behavioural methods used for testing of animal models and describes selected rat models of autism induced through various types of interference (natural mutation, gene inactivation, virus infection and chemical disruption of brain development) and compares their impact at the level of rat behaviour. Key words Rat, social behaviour, communication, vocalization, experimantal tasks, model organism, autism, models of autism
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Social behavior and communication in a laboratory rat and autism models
Tučková, Klára ; Petrásek, Tomáš (advisor) ; Pohanová, Petra (referee)
Social behavior of the brown rat as an animal living in a hierarchical collonies is very diverse and developed, which remains the same with the domestic laboratory rat. Rats communicate not only via odors, but also via various types of vocalizations, which express stress, pain or anxiety or on the other hand positive emotions and also communication during any social contact. Because of complex social behaviour and communication, rat is a suitable model organism for research of human mental disorders such as autism. This thesis gives an overview of natural social behaviour of rats, behavioural methods used for testing of animal models and describes selected rat models of autism induced through various types of interference (natural mutation, gene inactivation, virus infection and chemical disruption of brain development) and compares their impact at the level of rat behaviour. Key words Rat, social behaviour, communication, vocalization, experimantal tasks, model organism, autism, models of autism
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Information content in vocalization of guinea pigs (Cavia porcellus): individual distinction and recognition of predators
Baklová, Aneta ; Baranyiová, Eva (advisor) ; František, František (referee)
Guinea pigs represent domesticated precocious rodents which became common pets. From the first day after birth they are fully vocal. This thesis was devoted
to the vocalization of pups. The aim of the thesis was to 1) determine the age when the vocal individuality in whistle sound is demonstrable; 2) test possible ultrasonic signals emitted by young guinea pigs; 3) study the antipredator reactions and alarm calls to aerial (bird of prey) and terrestrial (dog) predators and human (control test).
A total of 16 guinea pig pups were tested for vocal individuality, 28 pups
for ultrasonic vocalization and 27 adolescents for predator recognition. When testing vocal ontogeny during the first 9 days after birth, I observed changes in temporal, frequency and parameter of intensity . When I test vocal individuality by cross-validated discriminant function analysis (DFA) based on ten acoustic parameters, calls were classified to correct animals with following success: day 1 = 71.9%, day 3 = 58.8%, day 5 = 53.10%, day 7 = 50.60% and day 9 = 63.10%. The highest frequency in whistle was 30.03 kHz. In predator discrimination reactions as freezing, fleeing and vigilance were observed. In the presence of dog, guinea pigs reacted for the longest time and most frequently by freezing. When confronted with a bird of prey, I observed for a longest time and most often fleeing and then freezing. When exposed to a human, guinea pigs showed mostly vigilance. Almost no vocalization was observed except for two events
of alarm calls - drrr as in the presence of dog and chirrup as reaction to bird of prey.
The following conclusions can be drawn from the presented results: 1) vocal individuality of guinea pigs is demonstrable immediately after birth and the rate
of individually different vocal parameters changes with age; 2) guinea pigs are able
to produce sound up to 30 kHz, i.e. within the ultrasound range, but signals of high frequencies are not crucial for their communication; 3) guinea pigs discriminate between terrestrial and aerial predators, but they emit alarm calls rather rarely.
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