TY - JOUR
T1 - Asic3 -/- female mice with hearing deficit affects social development of pups
AU - Wu, Wei Li
AU - Wang, Chih Hung
AU - Huang, Eagle Yi Kung
AU - Chen, Chih Cheng
PY - 2009/8/4
Y1 - 2009/8/4
N2 - Background: Infant crying is an important cue for mothers to respond adequately. Inappropriate response to infant crying can hinder social development in infants. In rodents, the pup-mother interaction largely depends on pup's calls. Mouse pups emit high frequency to ultrasonic vocalization (2-90 kHz) to communicate with their dam for maternal care. However, little is known about how the maternal response to infant crying or pup calls affects social development over the long term. Methodology/Principal Findings: Here we used mice lacking acid-sensing ion channel 3 (Asic3-/-) to create a hearing deficit to probe the effect of caregiver hearing on maternal care and adolescent social development. Female Asic3-/- mice showed elevated hearing thresholds for low to ultrasonic frequency (4-32 kHz) on auditory brain stem response, which thus hindered their response to their pups' wriggling calls and ultrasonic vocalization, as well as their retrieval of pups. In adolescence, pups reared by Asic3-/- mice showed a social deficit in juvenile social behaviors as compared with those reared by wild-type or heterozygous dams. The social-deficit phenotype in juvenile mice reared by Asic3-/- mice was associated with the reduced serotonin transmission of the brain. However, Asic3-/- pups cross-fostered to wild-type dam showed rescued social deficit. Conclusions/Significance: Inadequate response to pups' calls as a result of ASIC3-dependent hearing loss confers maternal deficits in caregivers and social development deficits in their young.
AB - Background: Infant crying is an important cue for mothers to respond adequately. Inappropriate response to infant crying can hinder social development in infants. In rodents, the pup-mother interaction largely depends on pup's calls. Mouse pups emit high frequency to ultrasonic vocalization (2-90 kHz) to communicate with their dam for maternal care. However, little is known about how the maternal response to infant crying or pup calls affects social development over the long term. Methodology/Principal Findings: Here we used mice lacking acid-sensing ion channel 3 (Asic3-/-) to create a hearing deficit to probe the effect of caregiver hearing on maternal care and adolescent social development. Female Asic3-/- mice showed elevated hearing thresholds for low to ultrasonic frequency (4-32 kHz) on auditory brain stem response, which thus hindered their response to their pups' wriggling calls and ultrasonic vocalization, as well as their retrieval of pups. In adolescence, pups reared by Asic3-/- mice showed a social deficit in juvenile social behaviors as compared with those reared by wild-type or heterozygous dams. The social-deficit phenotype in juvenile mice reared by Asic3-/- mice was associated with the reduced serotonin transmission of the brain. However, Asic3-/- pups cross-fostered to wild-type dam showed rescued social deficit. Conclusions/Significance: Inadequate response to pups' calls as a result of ASIC3-dependent hearing loss confers maternal deficits in caregivers and social development deficits in their young.
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=68349157476&partnerID=8YFLogxK
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/citedby.url?scp=68349157476&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1371/journal.pone.0006508
DO - 10.1371/journal.pone.0006508
M3 - Article
C2 - 19652708
AN - SCOPUS:68349157476
VL - 4
JO - PLoS One
JF - PLoS One
SN - 1932-6203
IS - 8
M1 - e6508
ER -