Alston's Short-Tailed Singing Brown Mice Show Polite Vocal Turn-Taking

Summary: Experiments attest to the orofacial motor cortex allowing Alston's short-tailed singing brown mice polite conversational pauses and vocal turn-taking.

a spiritedly singing mouse, Alston's short-tailed singing brown mouse (Scotinomys teguina); NYU School of Medicine @NYUSchoolofMedicine, via Facebook Feb. 28, 2019

The article Motor Cortical Control of Vocal Interaction in Neotropical Singing Mice in Science March 1, 2019, assigns non-interrupted non-overlapping turn-taking in Alston's short-tailed singing brown mice to the orofacial motor complex.

Co-authors Arkarup Banerjee, Michael Long, Andrew Matheson, Daniel Okobi Jr. and Steven Phelps surgically built electrodes and lines into captive Alston's short-tailed singing brown mice brains. Comparatively circulating mucosomol, to cancel brain functions, and saline controls correlates Alston's short-tailed singing brown mice half-second conversational pauses with the vocal muscle-flexing orofacial motor complex. Postdoctoral scientist Arkarup Banerjee declares of 16-second-long, 100-note songs, "they have to be very cognizant of when the other mouse is stopping or starting a song."

Michael Long, New York University Medical School neuroscientist, expects to expose Alston's sort-tailed singing brown mice brains to autistic gene experiments to expose brain sound-making centers.

Physically and sexually mature two-plus-month-old female Alston's short-tailed singing brown mice fit feathery, furry linings into dry grassy nests for three-plus two- to five-pup yearly litters.

Alston's short-tailed singing brown mice, gestated for 30 or 31 days, grow from blind, deaf, pink-skinned newborns into furry 10-day-olds, sighted 14-day-olds and two-month-olds nesting independently. Edward Alston's (Dec. 1, 1845-March 7, 1881) singing namesakes have turn-taking, uninterrupted conversations while holding heads and necks upward on bodies held up on hind legs. Physically and sexually mature Alston's short-tailed singing brown mice, identified as Scotinomys teguina (from Greek σκότος, "darkness" and -ινος, "-like"), institute singing interactions with one another.

Alston's short-tailed singing brown mice only journey near northern Mexico's three singing grasshopper mice species (Onycomys, from Greek ονυξ, ónux, "nail" and μυς, "mouse") as pets.

Alston's mice keep away from Costa Rican and Panamanian cloud forests' bigger Chiriqui singing mice (Scotinomys xerampelinus, from Greek ξηρός, "dry"; άμπελος, "vine"; and -ινος, "-like").

Physically and sexually mature Alston's short-tailed singing brown mice locate one another by the slightest of scurrying sounds and their musky secretions during year-round mating seasons. They manifest strong senses of smell, taste and texture during day-active, one-plus-year life cycles, because of olfactory communication by fatty, oily secretions from midventral sebaceous glands. They net big black eyes; round ears; long, narrow snouts and whiskers to note hole diameters; soft-furred brown-gray backs and sides; gray-white-yellow undersides; and black feet.

Physically and sexually mature Alston's short-tailed singing brown mice, observed by John Gray (Feb. 12, 1800-March 7, 1875), obtain black, near-hairless, scaly-skinned tails with brown-gray-orange undersides.

Mature 0.35- to 0.99-ounce (10- to 28-gram) Alston's mice possess 4.53- to 5.51-inch (11.5- to 14-centimeter) head-body and 1.77- to 2.36-inch (4.5- to 6-centimeter) tail lengths.

Cricetidae (from Czech křeček, "hamster" and Greek -ειδής, "-like") true hamster, lemming, vole and New World mice and rat family members queue up in shallow burrows. They require hard-bodied insects, such as beetles, and tough-coated seeds, for front incisors to remain sharp, and fruits, leaves, roots and stems for duller back teeth. They survive in forest edges, grassy clearings and rocky highlands at 3,608.92- to 9,678.48-feet (1,100- to 2,950-meter) altitudes above sea level from Chiapas, Mexico, through Panama.

People talk out of turn, before 200-millisecond minimum human conversational pauses time out, whereas Alston's short-tailed singing brown mice take turns and think before they talk.

(left) Alston's singing brown mouse (Scotinomys teguina), under synonym Hesperomys teguina, with (right) Sumichrast's vesper rat (Hesperomys sumichrasti); lithograph by Dutch zoological illustrator Joseph Smit (July 18, 1836-Nov. 4, 1929); E.A. Alston's Biologia Centrali-Americana (1879-1882), Tab. 14: Public Domain, via Biodiversity Heritage Library

Acknowledgment

My special thanks to talented artists and photographers/concerned organizations who make their fine images available on the internet.

Image credits:

a spiritedly singing mouse, Alston's short-tailed singing brown mouse (Scotinomys teguina); NYU School of Medicine @NYUSchoolofMedicine, via Facebook Feb. 28, 2019, @ https://www.facebook.com/NYUSchoolofMedicine/photos/a.10151322037783687/10156345170918687/

(left) Alston's singing brown mouse (Scotinomys teguina), under synonym Hesperomys teguina, with (right) Sumichrast's vesper rat (Hesperomys sumichrasti); lithograph by Dutch zoological illustrator Joseph Smit (July 18, 1836-Nov. 4, 1929); E.A. Alston's Biologia Centrali-Americana (1879-1882), Tab. 14: Public Domain, via Biodiversity Heritage Library @ https://biodiversitylibrary.org/page/570896; Biodiversity Heritage Library (BioDivLibrary), Public Domain, via Flickr @ https://www.flickr.com/photos/61021753@N02/8093939311/

For further information:

Airhart, Marc. 28 February 2019. "In Singing Mice, Scientists Find Clue to Our Own Rapid Conversations." UT News > Health & Wellness.
Available @ https://news.utexas.edu/2019/02/28/in-singing-mice-scientists-find-clue-to-our-own-rapid-conversations/

Alston, Edward R. 21 November 1876. "Hesperomys teguina, sp. n. Mus teguina, Gray, P.Z.S. 1843, p. 79 (sine descr.)." Pages 755-756. "On Two New Species of Hesperomys." Proceedings of the Scientific Meeting of the Zoological Society of London for the Year 1876, no. XLIX: 755-757. London: Printed for The Society by Messrs Longmans, Green, Reader, and Dyer.
Available via Biodiversity Heritage Library @ https://biodiversitylibrary.org/page/29100028

Alston, Edward R. 1879-1882. "1. Hesperomys teguina. (Tab. XIV, fig. 1)." Biologia Centrali-Americana. Mammalia: 144. London, England: R.H. Porter.
Available via Biodiversity Heritage Library @ https://biodiversitylibrary.org/page/570793

Burkhard, Tracy T.; Rebecca R. Westwick; and Steven M. Phelps. 25 April 2018. "Adiposity Signals Predict Vocal Effort in Alston's Singing Mice." Proceedings of the Royal Society B Biological Sciences, vol. 285, issue 1877. https://doi.org/10.1098/rspb.2018.0090.
Available via The Royal Society Publishing @ https://royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/10.1098/rspb.2018.0090

Honeycutt, Rodney L. "Rodentia (Rodents)." In: Michael Hutchins, Devra G. Kleiman, Valerius Geist and Melissa C. McDade, editors. Grzimek's Animal Life Encyclopedia. Second edition. Volume 16, Mammals V: 121-129. Farmington Hills MI: Gale Group, 2003.

Jones, Rymer. 13 June 1843. ". . . Mus teguina . . ." Page 79. "Prof. Rymer Jones in the Chair." Proceedings of the Zoological Society of London, Part XI (1843): 75-79. London, England: Printed for The Society by R. and J.E. Taylor.
Available via Biodiversity Heritage Library @ https://biodiversitylibrary.org/page/30680057

"The Melodious Mouse That Sings for Sex." Phys.Org > Biology > Plants & Animals > April 25, 2018.
Available @ https://phys.org/news/2018-04-melodious-mouse-sex.html

NYU School of Medicine @NYUSchoolofMedicine. 5 March 2019. "Dr. Michael Long explains how these singing mice could people that have conditions that might limit vocal interaction - including autism and damage following a stroke. Read more https://bbc.in/2UfxtaF via BBC." Facebook.
Available @ https://www.facebook.com/NYUSchoolofMedicine/posts/10156355623823687

NYU School of Medicine @NYUSchoolofMedicine. 28 February 2019. "By studying the songs of mice from the cloud forests of Costa Rica, NYU School of Medicine researchers have discovered a brain circuit that may enable the high-speed back and forth of conversation. Read more https://bit.ly/2H84cee." Facebook.
Available @ https://www.facebook.com/NYUSchoolofMedicine/photos/a.10151322037783687/10156345170918687/

Okobi Jr., Daniel E.; Arkarup Banerjee; Andrew M. M. Matheson; Steven M. Phelps; Michael A. Long. 1 March 2019. "Motor Cortical Control of Vocal Interaction in Neotropical Singing Mice." Science 363(6430): 983-988. DOI: 10.1126/science.aau9480
Available via American Association for the Advancement of Science Magazine @ http://science.sciencemag.org/content/363/6430/983

Pasch, Bret. 26 September 2013. "Singing Mice Protect Their Turf with High-Pitched Tunes." EurekAlert! > Public Release.
Available @ https://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2013-09/uota-smp092613.php

Servick, Kelly. 28 February 2019. "This Singing Mouse's Brain Could Reveal Keys to Snappy Conversation." American Association for the Advancement of Science Magazine > News.
Available @ https://www.sciencemag.org/news/2019/02/singing-mouse-s-brain-could-reveal-keys-snappy-conversation