Turn-taking-like temporal coordination of ultrasonic vocalizations during close-range social interactions in Mongolian gerbils (Meriones unguiculatus)

Abstract

Vocal communication depends not only on the acoustic features and rate of vocalizations, but also on their timing relative to the vocalizations of others. In this study, we examined whether ultrasonic vocalizations (USVs) produced by adult female Mongolian gerbils during freely moving social interactions are temporally related to the vocal timing of a partner. Using USVCAM, we assigned each USV to an individual caller and evaluated whether brief USVs exhibit turn-taking-like temporal organization by analyzing response latency after partner calls, call overlap rate, and circular-shift surrogate data. The offset-to-onset gaps of alternating vocalizations were concentrated within a short time range, with a median of 130 ms. In addition, the call overlap rate was significantly lower in the observed data than in the circularly shifted surrogate data, indicating that USVs occurred with short latencies after partner calls while being less likely to overlap with ongoing partner calls. Furthermore, USV counts were reduced in unoperated Ctrl animals that interacted with devocalized Mute animals. These findings suggest that gerbil USVs may be coordinated in relation to partner vocal timing and vocal input. This study provides a basis for understanding rodent USVs not merely as individual vocal outputs, but as temporally organized dyadic social signals.