Automatic mouse ultrasound detector (A-MUD): A new tool for processing rodent vocalizations.

House mice (Mus musculus) emit complex ultrasonic vocalizations (USVs) during social and sexual interactions, which have features similar to bird song (i.e., they are composed of several different types of syllables, uttered in succession over time to form a pattern of sequences). Manually processin...

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Main Authors: Sarah M Zala, Doris Reitschmidt, Anton Noll, Peter Balazs, Dustin J Penn
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: Public Library of Science (PLoS) 2017-01-01
Series:PLoS ONE
Online Access:https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article/file?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0181200&type=printable
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author Sarah M Zala
Doris Reitschmidt
Anton Noll
Peter Balazs
Dustin J Penn
author_facet Sarah M Zala
Doris Reitschmidt
Anton Noll
Peter Balazs
Dustin J Penn
author_sort Sarah M Zala
collection DOAJ
description House mice (Mus musculus) emit complex ultrasonic vocalizations (USVs) during social and sexual interactions, which have features similar to bird song (i.e., they are composed of several different types of syllables, uttered in succession over time to form a pattern of sequences). Manually processing complex vocalization data is time-consuming and potentially subjective, and therefore, we developed an algorithm that automatically detects mouse ultrasonic vocalizations (Automatic Mouse Ultrasound Detector or A-MUD). A-MUD is a script that runs on STx acoustic software (S_TOOLS-STx version 4.2.2), which is free for scientific use. This algorithm improved the efficiency of processing USV files, as it was 4-12 times faster than manual segmentation, depending upon the size of the file. We evaluated A-MUD error rates using manually segmented sound files as a 'gold standard' reference, and compared them to a commercially available program. A-MUD had lower error rates than the commercial software, as it detected significantly more correct positives, and fewer false positives and false negatives. The errors generated by A-MUD were mainly false negatives, rather than false positives. This study is the first to systematically compare error rates for automatic ultrasonic vocalization detection methods, and A-MUD and subsequent versions will be made available for the scientific community.
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spelling doaj-art-acbca6f1f23641f7b28c22f6aca3a9a72025-08-20T03:19:52ZengPublic Library of Science (PLoS)PLoS ONE1932-62032017-01-01127e018120010.1371/journal.pone.0181200Automatic mouse ultrasound detector (A-MUD): A new tool for processing rodent vocalizations.Sarah M ZalaDoris ReitschmidtAnton NollPeter BalazsDustin J PennHouse mice (Mus musculus) emit complex ultrasonic vocalizations (USVs) during social and sexual interactions, which have features similar to bird song (i.e., they are composed of several different types of syllables, uttered in succession over time to form a pattern of sequences). Manually processing complex vocalization data is time-consuming and potentially subjective, and therefore, we developed an algorithm that automatically detects mouse ultrasonic vocalizations (Automatic Mouse Ultrasound Detector or A-MUD). A-MUD is a script that runs on STx acoustic software (S_TOOLS-STx version 4.2.2), which is free for scientific use. This algorithm improved the efficiency of processing USV files, as it was 4-12 times faster than manual segmentation, depending upon the size of the file. We evaluated A-MUD error rates using manually segmented sound files as a 'gold standard' reference, and compared them to a commercially available program. A-MUD had lower error rates than the commercial software, as it detected significantly more correct positives, and fewer false positives and false negatives. The errors generated by A-MUD were mainly false negatives, rather than false positives. This study is the first to systematically compare error rates for automatic ultrasonic vocalization detection methods, and A-MUD and subsequent versions will be made available for the scientific community.https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article/file?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0181200&type=printable
spellingShingle Sarah M Zala
Doris Reitschmidt
Anton Noll
Peter Balazs
Dustin J Penn
Automatic mouse ultrasound detector (A-MUD): A new tool for processing rodent vocalizations.
PLoS ONE
title Automatic mouse ultrasound detector (A-MUD): A new tool for processing rodent vocalizations.
title_full Automatic mouse ultrasound detector (A-MUD): A new tool for processing rodent vocalizations.
title_fullStr Automatic mouse ultrasound detector (A-MUD): A new tool for processing rodent vocalizations.
title_full_unstemmed Automatic mouse ultrasound detector (A-MUD): A new tool for processing rodent vocalizations.
title_short Automatic mouse ultrasound detector (A-MUD): A new tool for processing rodent vocalizations.
title_sort automatic mouse ultrasound detector a mud a new tool for processing rodent vocalizations
url https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article/file?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0181200&type=printable
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AT antonnoll automaticmouseultrasounddetectoramudanewtoolforprocessingrodentvocalizations
AT peterbalazs automaticmouseultrasounddetectoramudanewtoolforprocessingrodentvocalizations
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