USVCAM

Jumpei Matsumoto from the University of Toyama has shared the following about his open-source system, USVCAM, for measuring ultrasound communication in rodents:

“Mice frequently use ultrasonic vocalizations (USVs) during social interaction. USV communication in mice has received considerable attention as a powerful experimental model for studying physiological mechanisms of social behavior and their deficit. The advances in sound localization technology have facilitated the analysis of vocal interactions between multiple mice. However, existing sound localization systems are built around distributed-microphone arrays, which require a special recording arena and long processing time.

We developed a novel system, named USVCAM, which was inspired by the acoustic camera, a portable device that combines a camera and a
compact microphone array to visualize sound sources on camera images. In addition to the simpler recording enabled with the compact device, USVCAM also achieved faster processing by utilizing phase lag of sound waves.

Since USVCAM could make sound localization as adaptable as a single camera / microphone recording, combinations with various behavioral
paradigms, recording arenas, measurements and manipulations will be possible.”

This research tool was created by your colleagues. Please acknowledge the Principal Investigator, cite the article in which the tool was described, and include an RRID in the Materials and Methods of your future publications. RRID:SCR_022747