…when young mouse pups are separated from their mothers, they start making high-pitched noises at around 65 kilohertz…Really? Are you sure they don't broadcast football on the same frequency?
Behavioural studies have found that mother mice show twice as much interest in these distress calls than in a simple 20 kHz tone when these sounds are played through different speakers.
Male mice that had fathered multiple litters also displayed a similar interest in the youngster's distress calls.
In contrast, virgin females paid equal attention to both types of sounds, while bachelor males paid no attention to either noise.I could've told you that.
The brain recordings revealed that nerve activity peaked fastest in the maternal mice… Furthermore, the auditory cells fired off more coordinated nerve signals in mother mice than in virgins.I gotta let my wife know about this upside.
by Roxanne Khamsi
NewScientist.com
