Flexible Coupling of Respiration and Vocalizations with Locomotion and Head Movements in the Freely Behaving Rat

Quadrupedal mammals typically synchronize their respiration with body movements during rhythmic locomotion. In the rat, fast respiration is coupled to head movements during sniffing behavior, but whether respiration is entrained by stride dynamics is not known. We recorded intranasal pressure, head...

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Main Authors: Joseph Andrews Alves, Barbara Ciralli Boerner, Diego Andrés Laplagne
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: Wiley 2016-01-01
Series:Neural Plasticity
Online Access:http://dx.doi.org/10.1155/2016/4065073
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author Joseph Andrews Alves
Barbara Ciralli Boerner
Diego Andrés Laplagne
author_facet Joseph Andrews Alves
Barbara Ciralli Boerner
Diego Andrés Laplagne
author_sort Joseph Andrews Alves
collection DOAJ
description Quadrupedal mammals typically synchronize their respiration with body movements during rhythmic locomotion. In the rat, fast respiration is coupled to head movements during sniffing behavior, but whether respiration is entrained by stride dynamics is not known. We recorded intranasal pressure, head acceleration, instantaneous speed, and ultrasonic vocalizations from male and female adult rats while freely behaving in a social environment. We used high-speed video recordings of stride to understand how head acceleration signals relate to locomotion and developed techniques to identify episodes of sniffing, walking, trotting, and galloping from the recorded variables. Quantitative analysis of synchrony between respiration and head acceleration rhythms revealed that respiration and locomotion movements were coordinated but with a weaker coupling than expected from previous work in other mammals. We have recently shown that rats behaving in social settings produce high rates of ultrasonic vocalizations during locomotion bouts. Accordingly, rats emitted vocalizations in over half of the respiratory cycles during fast displacements. We present evidence suggesting that emission of these calls disrupts the entrainment of respiration by stride. The coupling between these two variables is thus flexible, such that it can be overridden by other behavioral demands.
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spelling doaj-art-13665402549a49b59c67e36bbdf72cd22025-08-20T02:01:42ZengWileyNeural Plasticity2090-59041687-54432016-01-01201610.1155/2016/40650734065073Flexible Coupling of Respiration and Vocalizations with Locomotion and Head Movements in the Freely Behaving RatJoseph Andrews Alves0Barbara Ciralli Boerner1Diego Andrés Laplagne2Brain Institute, Federal University of Rio Grande do Norte, Avenida Nascimento de Castro 2155, 59056-450 Natal, RN, BrazilBrain Institute, Federal University of Rio Grande do Norte, Avenida Nascimento de Castro 2155, 59056-450 Natal, RN, BrazilBrain Institute, Federal University of Rio Grande do Norte, Avenida Nascimento de Castro 2155, 59056-450 Natal, RN, BrazilQuadrupedal mammals typically synchronize their respiration with body movements during rhythmic locomotion. In the rat, fast respiration is coupled to head movements during sniffing behavior, but whether respiration is entrained by stride dynamics is not known. We recorded intranasal pressure, head acceleration, instantaneous speed, and ultrasonic vocalizations from male and female adult rats while freely behaving in a social environment. We used high-speed video recordings of stride to understand how head acceleration signals relate to locomotion and developed techniques to identify episodes of sniffing, walking, trotting, and galloping from the recorded variables. Quantitative analysis of synchrony between respiration and head acceleration rhythms revealed that respiration and locomotion movements were coordinated but with a weaker coupling than expected from previous work in other mammals. We have recently shown that rats behaving in social settings produce high rates of ultrasonic vocalizations during locomotion bouts. Accordingly, rats emitted vocalizations in over half of the respiratory cycles during fast displacements. We present evidence suggesting that emission of these calls disrupts the entrainment of respiration by stride. The coupling between these two variables is thus flexible, such that it can be overridden by other behavioral demands.http://dx.doi.org/10.1155/2016/4065073
spellingShingle Joseph Andrews Alves
Barbara Ciralli Boerner
Diego Andrés Laplagne
Flexible Coupling of Respiration and Vocalizations with Locomotion and Head Movements in the Freely Behaving Rat
Neural Plasticity
title Flexible Coupling of Respiration and Vocalizations with Locomotion and Head Movements in the Freely Behaving Rat
title_full Flexible Coupling of Respiration and Vocalizations with Locomotion and Head Movements in the Freely Behaving Rat
title_fullStr Flexible Coupling of Respiration and Vocalizations with Locomotion and Head Movements in the Freely Behaving Rat
title_full_unstemmed Flexible Coupling of Respiration and Vocalizations with Locomotion and Head Movements in the Freely Behaving Rat
title_short Flexible Coupling of Respiration and Vocalizations with Locomotion and Head Movements in the Freely Behaving Rat
title_sort flexible coupling of respiration and vocalizations with locomotion and head movements in the freely behaving rat
url http://dx.doi.org/10.1155/2016/4065073
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AT diegoandreslaplagne flexiblecouplingofrespirationandvocalizationswithlocomotionandheadmovementsinthefreelybehavingrat