{"status":"ok","message-type":"work","message-version":"1.0.0","message":{"indexed":{"date-parts":[[2026,5,10]],"date-time":"2026-05-10T01:39:32Z","timestamp":1778377172443,"version":"3.51.4"},"reference-count":34,"publisher":"MDPI AG","issue":"10","license":[{"start":{"date-parts":[[2021,10,17]],"date-time":"2021-10-17T00:00:00Z","timestamp":1634428800000},"content-version":"vor","delay-in-days":0,"URL":"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by\/4.0\/"}],"funder":[{"DOI":"10.13039\/501100001659","name":"Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","award":["Schu1600\/6-1"],"award-info":[{"award-number":["Schu1600\/6-1"]}],"id":[{"id":"10.13039\/501100001659","id-type":"DOI","asserted-by":"publisher"}]}],"content-domain":{"domain":[],"crossmark-restriction":false},"short-container-title":["Brain Sciences"],"abstract":"<jats:p>Vocalization is an important part of social communication, not only for humans but also for mice. Here, we show in a mouse model that functional deficiency of Sprouty-related EVH1 domain-containing 2 (SPRED2), a protein ubiquitously expressed in the brain, causes differences in social ultrasound vocalizations (USVs), using an uncomplicated and reliable experimental setting of a short meeting of two individuals. SPRED2 mutant mice show an OCD-like behaviour, accompanied by an increased release of stress hormones from the hypothalamic\u2013pituitary\u2013adrenal axis, both factors probably influencing USV usage. To determine genotype-related differences in USV usage, we analyzed call rate, subtype profile, and acoustic parameters (i.e., duration, bandwidth, and mean peak frequency) in young and old SPRED2-KO mice. We recorded USVs of interacting male and female mice, and analyzed the calls with the deep-learning DeepSqueak software, which was trained to recognize and categorize the emitted USVs. Our findings provide the first classification of SPRED2-KO vs. wild-type mouse USVs using neural networks and reveal significant differences in their development and use of calls. Our results show, first, that simple experimental settings in combination with deep learning are successful at identifying genotype-dependent USV usage and, second, that SPRED2 deficiency negatively affects the vocalization usage and social communication of mice.<\/jats:p>","DOI":"10.3390\/brainsci11101365","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2021,10,17]],"date-time":"2021-10-17T23:13:32Z","timestamp":1634512412000},"page":"1365","update-policy":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.3390\/mdpi_crossmark_policy","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":10,"title":["Genotype- and Age-Dependent Differences in Ultrasound Vocalizations of SPRED2 Mutant Mice Revealed by Machine Deep Learning"],"prefix":"10.3390","volume":"11","author":[{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0002-0624-3869","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Denis","family":"Hepbasli","sequence":"first","affiliation":[{"name":"Institute of Physiology I, University Wuerzburg, Roentgenring 9, 97070 Wuerzburg, Germany"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"given":"Sina","family":"Gredy","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Institute of Physiology I, University Wuerzburg, Roentgenring 9, 97070 Wuerzburg, Germany"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0002-9128-287X","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Melanie","family":"Ullrich","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Center for Rare Diseases, University Clinic Wuerzburg, Josef-Schneider-Strasse 2, 97080 Wuerzburg, Germany"},{"name":"Center for Medical Informatics, University Clinic Wuerzburg, Schweinfurter Strasse 4, 97080 Wuerzburg, Germany"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"given":"Amelie","family":"Reigl","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Institute of Physiology I, University Wuerzburg, Roentgenring 9, 97070 Wuerzburg, Germany"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"given":"Marco","family":"Abe\u00dfer","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Institute of Physiology I, University Wuerzburg, Roentgenring 9, 97070 Wuerzburg, Germany"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0001-9734-4464","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Thomas","family":"Raabe","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Institute for Medical Radiation and Cell Research, Campus Hubland, University Wuerzburg, Biozentrum, 97074 Wuerzburg, Germany"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"given":"Kai","family":"Schuh","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Institute of Physiology I, University Wuerzburg, Roentgenring 9, 97070 Wuerzburg, Germany"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]}],"member":"1968","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2021,10,17]]},"reference":[{"key":"ref_1","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"433","DOI":"10.1016\/S0018-506X(03)00025-4","article-title":"The use of low-frequency vocalizations in African elephant (Loxodonta africana) reproductive strategies","volume":"43","author":"Leong","year":"2003","journal-title":"Horm. 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