Structure of distress call: implication for specificity and activation of dopaminergic system

作者：Mariappan Subramanian; Bogdanowicz Wieslaw; Raghuram Hanumanthan; Marimuthu Ganapathy; Rajan Koilmani Emmanuvel^*

来源：Journal of Comparative Physiology A-Neuroethology Sensory Neural and Behavioral Physiology, 2016, 202(1): 55-65.

DOI：10.1007/s00359-015-1053-0

• Chiroptera
• Cynopterus sphinx
• Distress calls
• Playback
• Dopamine

We conducted a set of playback experiments aimed at understanding whether distress-call structure in the greater short-nosed fruit bat Cynopterus sphinx is specific in encoding information relating to stress that attracts conspecifics. We tested the specificity by playing their distress call and its modified version at a foraging site for free-ranging bats, as well as under captive conditions involving either a small group or individuals. In a separate playback experiment, bats showed a significantly greater response when the natural call as opposed to a modified call was played back to captive as well as free-ranging bats at the foraging site. Under captive conditions, bats showed less of a response to the playback of distress calls when in a group than when alone. We subsequently found that tyrosine hydroxylase (TH) and its transcription factor-nuclear receptor related factor 1 (Nurr-1); and the dopamine transporter (DAT) and its receptor (D1DR) were elevated significantly in the amygdala of bats both emitting and responding to a distress call, but not in the case of bats responding to the modified call. These results suggest that distress-call structure encodes information on the state of stress that is capable of being conveyed to conspecifics.

• 出版日期2016-1