Sexual excitation induces courtship ultrasonic vocalizations and cataplexy-like behavior in orexin neuron-ablated male mice
Open Access
- 5 February 2021
- journal article
- research article
- Published by Springer Science and Business Media LLC in Communications Biology
- Vol. 4 (1), 1-8
- https://doi.org/10.1038/s42003-021-01696-z
Abstract
Cataplexy is triggered by laughter in humans and palatable food in mice. To further evaluate mice’s cataplexy, we examined courtship behavior in orexin neuron-ablated mice (ORX-AB), one of the animal models of narcolepsy/cataplexy. Wild-type female mice were placed into the home cage of male ORX-AB and cataplexy-like behavior was observed along with ultrasonic vocalizations (USVs), also known as the “love song”. ORX-AB with a female encounter showed cataplexy-like behavior both during the dark and light periods, whereas ORX-AB with chocolate predominantly showed it during the dark period. During the light period observation, more than 85% of cataplexy-like bouts were preceded by USVs. A strong positive correlation was observed between the number of USVs and cataplexy-like bouts. Cataplexy-like behavior in narcoleptic mice is a good behavioral measure to study the brain mechanisms behind positive emotion because they can be induced by different kinds of positive stimuli, including chocolate and female courtship.Funding Information
- MEXT | Japan Society for the Promotion of Science (16H05130, 16K13112, 18K13371, 19H04912)
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