Ultrasonic vocalizations by male mice (Mus musculus) to female sex pheromone: Experiential determinants

Adult male mice (Mus musculus), separated from females at weaning, did not emit 70-kHz courtship ultrasounds to female urine. Other adult males that in addition were given 3-min exposures per day to stimulus females and males for 8 consecutive days later emitted many ultrasounds to female urine. However, even those males that initially responded to female urine typically ceased responding during the course of repeated presentations of female urine. This loss of responsiveness to urine did not generalize to female stimuli. Thus, both the acquisition and maintenance of the male ultrasonic response to female urine are affected by experiential factors.