Audiogram of the wild house mouse (Mus musculus)
Data from: Heffner, H., and Masterton, R. (1980) Hearing in glires: domestic rabbit, cotton rat, feral house mouse and kangaroo rat. Journal of the Acoustic Society of America, 68, 154-1599.
Absolute thresholds (in dB re 20 µPa) for three wild-trapped house mice (designated A, B, and C)
|
Frequency (in kHz) |
Individual Thresholds (in dB) |
Average |
||
|
A |
B |
C |
||
|
2 |
66 |
69 |
>69 |
~70 |
|
3.3 |
— |
— |
57 |
57 |
|
4 |
19 |
18 |
— |
18.5 |
|
8 |
6 |
8 |
6 |
7 |
|
16 |
-11 |
-11 |
-7 |
-10 |
|
32 |
12 |
3 |
8 |
8 |
|
64 |
25 |
15 |
36 |
25 |
|
91 |
58 |
58 |
— |
58 |
|
128 |
>74 |
>74 |
>74 |
>74 |
Lowest and highest frequencies audible at sound
pressure levels (SPL) ranging from 30 to 70 dB SPL
|
SPL (in dB) |
Lowest audible frequency (in kHz) |
Highest audible frequency (in kHz) |
|
70 |
2 |
— |
|
60 |
2.3 |
92 |
|
50 |
2.6 |
83 |
|
40 |
3 |
74 |
|
30 |
3.4 |
66 |
Additional Parameters:
Body weight = 14 g
Functional interaural distance= 40 µs
(Time required for sound to travel around the head from one auditory meatus to the other.)
Comments: Threshold values taken from original data. We now refer to these animals as “wild mice” as “feral” refers to domestic animals that have returned to the wild.
For an audiogram using domestic house mice, see Markl, V.H., and Ehret, G. (1973) Die Horschwelle der Maus (Mus musculus). Zeitschrift für Tierpsychologie, 33, 274-286.
Current work in our laboratory indicates that domestic house mice do not hear below 2 kHz:
Koay, G., Heffner, R.S., and Heffner, H.E. (2002) Behavioral audiograms of homozygous medJ mutant mice with sodium channel deficiency and their unaffected littermates. Hearing Research, 171, 111-118.