Grunting in a genetically modified minipig animal model for Huntington's disease : pilot experiments
Abstrakt
Huntington's disease (HD) is an autosomal-dominant neurodegenerative disorder characterized by the impairment of voluntary and involuntary movements, behavioral disorders and cognitive decline. Besides the main motor symptoms, voice and speech disorders have been documented in a large majority of patients with HD.
The animal model of pigs is often used in preclinical studies. Although there are obvious differences in the anatomy of the articulation organs between pigs and humans, the same trends in pathophysiological mechanisms can be expected in both grunting and human phonation.
The main aim of the study was therefore to design a suitable experiment that would allow for acquisition of a sufficiently long recording of grunting from as many pigs as possible. The second goal was to perform the final version of the experiment in all available pigs and to evaluate the amount and quality of the acquired recordings.
The database consists of 17 HD transgenic minipigs and 16 healthy siblings. Tested variants of the experiment, performed on subgroup of four sows, were divided into four subgroups: (a) positive - feeding, (b) positive - sound stimulation, (c) negative - hindering in movement, (d) negative - unpleasant touch.
The evaluation of the quality of the elicited recording was performed using audio software where pure pig grunting was selected and all acoustic artefacts deleted. The best results were reached using the experiment in which: (i) a recording device is put on the pig's body, (ii) the pig is left alone for few minutes in the pen in order to calm down, and (iii) a person enters the room and tries to offer the pig food while walking backwards.
As a result, the pig follows the person and grunts. Sufficiently long (20 single grunts or more) and clear recordings were received from 24 out of 33 pigs (73%).
The realisation of the experiment is therefore possible.