Sociality Drives Sex Differences in Auditory Brainstem Processing Across Rodent Species

Abstract

Although social behavior has been predicted to correlate with increased complexity in vocal signals, its relationship with auditory sensitivity between the sexes remains poorly understood. Here, we used phylogenetic comparative analyses to examine sex-specific differences in auditory processing across rodent species representing different social lifestyle strategies. We detected significant sex differences in click and frequency evoked auditory brainstem response (ABR) thresholds across sociality, with social female rodents exhibiting lower thresholds than solitary males. Males generally exhibited higher ABR wave I and IV amplitude ratios than females, whereas interpeak latencies were similar between the sexes across social groups. Females exhibited significantly higher binaural interaction component (BIC) relative amplitudes and faster BIC normalized latencies than males across tested interaural time differences (ITDs). Together, these findings demonstrate that sociality plays an important role in shaping differences in auditory physiology between male and female rodents and highlights the potential influence of social behavior on the evolution of mammalian auditory systems.