Lipopolysaccharide-induced systemic inflammation alters courtship ultrasonic vocalizations in male mice
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Background
Sickness behavior comprises a coordinated constellation of motivational, cognitive, and social alterations that emerge during systemic inflammation. Although reductions in locomotion, feeding, and social engagement have been extensively characterized, how inflammation affects ultrasonic vocal communication—an ethologically relevant index of social motivation in rodents—remains insufficiently understood. Here, we investigated how systemic immune activation alters male–female social communication in mice by jointly assessing ultrasonic vocalizations (USVs) and approach behavior.
Methods
Sexually experienced male mice received an intraperitoneal injection of lipopolysaccharide (LPS), and their interactions with a novel estrous female were evaluated 24 h later by quantifying USVs and approach behavior.
Results
LPS administration robustly suppressed both the total number of USVs and the duration of male approach behavior, indicating a pronounced reduction in social motivation. Beyond this quantitative suppression, LPS also induced qualitative changes in vocal output, including shifts in the proportional use of specific USV subtypes and alterations in acoustic features such as sound pressure.
Conclusions
These findings demonstrate that USVs capture multiple dimensions of inflammation-induced disruption of social communication, reflecting not only diminished motivation to engage socially but also changes in the structure of communicative signals themselves. By revealing that systemic immune activation reshapes both social approach behavior and vocal communication patterns, this study establishes USV analysis as a sensitive and translationally relevant behavioral readout for probing neuroimmune mechanisms underlying the social and communicative disturbances characteristic of sickness behavior. More broadly, our results highlight the utility of vocal communication analyses for elucidating how inflammatory processes perturb social circuits and communicative function in health and disease.
