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Female cats, but not males, adjust responsiveness to arousal in the voice of kittens

Overview of attention for article published in BMC Ecology and Evolution, August 2016
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  • In the top 5% of all research outputs scored by Altmetric
  • High Attention Score compared to outputs of the same age (98th percentile)
  • High Attention Score compared to outputs of the same age and source (95th percentile)

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14 news outlets
blogs
1 blog
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17 X users
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1 Facebook page

Citations

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6 Dimensions

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33 Mendeley
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Title
Female cats, but not males, adjust responsiveness to arousal in the voice of kittens
Published in
BMC Ecology and Evolution, August 2016
DOI 10.1186/s12862-016-0718-9
Pubmed ID
Authors

Wiebke S. Konerding, Elke Zimmermann, Eva Bleich, Hans-Jürgen Hedrich, Marina Scheumann

Abstract

The infant cry is the most important communicative tool to elicit adaptive parental behaviour. Sex-specific adaptation, linked to parental investment, may have evolutionary shaped the responsiveness to changes in the voice of the infant cries. The emotional content of infant cries may trigger distinctive responsiveness either based on their general arousing properties, being part of a general affect encoding rule, or based on affective perception, linked to parental investment, differing between species. To address this question, we performed playback experiments using infant isolation calls in a species without paternal care, the domestic cat. We used kitten calls recorded in isolation contexts inducing either Low arousal (i.e., isolation only) or High arousal (i.e., additional handling), leading to respective differences in escape response of the kittens. We predicted that only females respond differently to playbacks of Low versus High arousal kitten isolation calls, based on sex-differences in parental investment. Findings showed sex-specific responsiveness of adult cats listening to kitten isolation calls of different arousal conditions, with only females responding faster towards calls of the High versus the Low arousal condition. Breeding experience of females did not affect the result. Furthermore, female responsiveness correlated with acoustic parameters related to spectral characteristics of the fundamental frequency (F0): Females responded faster to kitten calls with lower F0 at call onset, lower minimum F0 and a steeper slope of the F0. Our study revealed sex-specific differences in the responsiveness to kitten isolation calls of different arousal conditions independent of female breeding experience. The findings indicated that features of F0 are important to convey the arousal state of an infant. Taken together, the results suggest that differences in parental investment evolutionary shaped responsiveness (auditory sensitivity/ motivation) to infant calls in a sex-specific manner in the domestic cat.

X Demographics

X Demographics

The data shown below were collected from the profiles of 17 X users who shared this research output. Click here to find out more about how the information was compiled.
Mendeley readers

Mendeley readers

The data shown below were compiled from readership statistics for 33 Mendeley readers of this research output. Click here to see the associated Mendeley record.

Geographical breakdown

Country Count As %
Hungary 1 3%
Germany 1 3%
Unknown 31 94%

Demographic breakdown

Readers by professional status Count As %
Researcher 6 18%
Student > Master 5 15%
Other 3 9%
Professor > Associate Professor 2 6%
Student > Ph. D. Student 2 6%
Other 5 15%
Unknown 10 30%
Readers by discipline Count As %
Agricultural and Biological Sciences 12 36%
Neuroscience 3 9%
Psychology 2 6%
Veterinary Science and Veterinary Medicine 1 3%
Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology 1 3%
Other 2 6%
Unknown 12 36%
Attention Score in Context

Attention Score in Context

This research output has an Altmetric Attention Score of 127. This is our high-level measure of the quality and quantity of online attention that it has received. This Attention Score, as well as the ranking and number of research outputs shown below, was calculated when the research output was last mentioned on 29 July 2023.
All research outputs
#329,057
of 25,374,917 outputs
Outputs from BMC Ecology and Evolution
#59
of 3,714 outputs
Outputs of similar age
#6,579
of 369,210 outputs
Outputs of similar age from BMC Ecology and Evolution
#3
of 66 outputs
Altmetric has tracked 25,374,917 research outputs across all sources so far. Compared to these this one has done particularly well and is in the 98th percentile: it's in the top 5% of all research outputs ever tracked by Altmetric.
So far Altmetric has tracked 3,714 research outputs from this source. They typically receive a lot more attention than average, with a mean Attention Score of 12.5. This one has done particularly well, scoring higher than 98% of its peers.
Older research outputs will score higher simply because they've had more time to accumulate mentions. To account for age we can compare this Altmetric Attention Score to the 369,210 tracked outputs that were published within six weeks on either side of this one in any source. This one has done particularly well, scoring higher than 98% of its contemporaries.
We're also able to compare this research output to 66 others from the same source and published within six weeks on either side of this one. This one has done particularly well, scoring higher than 95% of its contemporaries.