Voiced calls evoked by hypothalamic stimulation in the cat

Abstract

Voiced vocalizations evoked by hypothalamic stimulation were studied in a series of six awake adult cats. Electrical stimulation was found to evoke vocalizations at numerous sites within the hypothalamus, ranging from A + 8 to A + 16. Regions showing the largest number of responsive sites were the preoptic region, the ventromedial area, the perifornical region, the lateral and the dorso-medial hypothalamus. The form of the evoked calls was generally similar to the spontaneous calls of the same animal. Call latency, duration, and intensity were not significantly affected by changes in stimulus intensity or duration but all three of these call parameters were significantly affected by changes in stimulus frequency. In general, call latency was longest at sites in the rostral hypothalamus and shortest at sites in the caudal hypothalamus. This study is the first to investigate systematically voiced call producing areas in the hypothalamus of awake cats and to document similarities between these calls and spontaneously produced voiced calls.