ArticleScientific reports2018
Corticosterone levels reflect variation in metabolic rate, independent of 'stress'.
Article in Scientific reports, 2018. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 43 papers, 2 of them syntheses that pooled it.
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The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
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Who cites it
43 citing papers in PubMed, 2 syntheses or guidelines pooled it, 126 citations in OpenAlex.
- Meta-analysis reveals glucocorticoid levels reflect variation in metabolic rate, not 'stress'.eLife · 2023Pooled it
- Glucocorticoids in relation to behavior, morphology, and physiology as proxy indicators for the assessment of animal welfare. A systematic mapping review.Frontiers in veterinary science · 2022Pooled it
- Corticosterone Concentration Varies With Metabolic Rate in Vertebrates.Ecology and evolution · 2026Article
- Hypothalamic representation of aggressiveness across mouse strains.Nature communications · 2026Article
- Going stressed underground: corticosterone-induced stress responses alter the movement and spatial ecology of males in a fossorial reptile.Movement ecology · 2026Article
- Physiological and behavioural responses of wandering albatross chicks (Diomedea exulans) to novel and non-novel predators.Journal of comparative physiology. A, Neuroethology, sensory, neural, and behavioral physiology · 2026Article
- Same species, different risks: predation shapes hormonal profiles in a breeding sea duck, the common eider.Conservation physiology · 2026Article
- Effects of the estrous cycle and sex on stress responses in guinea pigs.Scientific reports · 2025Article
- Rearing in a Shelved Environment Chronically Modifies Offspring Behaviour and Physiology.The European journal of neuroscience · 2025Article
- Long term study on blood glucose levels in wintering great tits Parus major in sites differing in artificial food availability.Scientific reports · 2025Article
- Early prenatal but not postnatal glucocorticoid exposure is associated with enhanced HPA axis activity into adulthood in a wild primate.Proceedings. Biological sciences · 2025Article
- From eggs to adulthood: sustained effects of early developmental temperature and corticosterone exposure on physiology and body size in an Australian lizard.The Journal of experimental biology · 2024Article
- Metabolic rate and saliva cortisol concentrations in socially housed adolescent guinea pigs.Journal of comparative physiology. B, Biochemical, systemic, and environmental physiology · 2024Article
- Experience and trust: the benefits of mate familiarity are realized through sex-specific specialization of parental roles in Cassin's auklet.Royal Society open science · 2024Article
- Corticosterone and glucose are correlated and show similar response patterns to temperature and stress in a free-living bird.The Journal of experimental biology · 2024Article
- Modelling the role of glucocorticoid receptor as mediator of endocrine responses to environmental challenge.Philosophical transactions of the Royal Society of London. Series B, Biological sciences · 2024Article
- Cooperative breeding alters physiological and behavioral responses to habitat fragmentation.iScience · 2024Article
- Cellular allostatic load is linked to increased energy expenditure and accelerated biological aging.Psychoneuroendocrinology · 2023Article
- Grape Polyphenols May Prevent High-Fat Diet-Induced Dampening of the Hypothalamic-Pituitary-Adrenal Axis in Male Mice.Journal of the Endocrine Society · 2023Article
- Blood chemistry and biliverdin differ according to reproduction and tourism in a free-living lizard.Journal of comparative physiology. B, Biochemical, systemic, and environmental physiology · 2023Article
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
3 authors at 2 institutions in 2 countries.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
Variation in glucocorticoid hormones (GCs) is often interpreted as reflecting 'stress', but this interpretation is subject of intense debate. GCs induce gluconeogenesis, and we hypothesized therefore that GC variation can be explained by changes in current and anticipated metabolic rate (MR). Alternatively, GC levels may respond to psychological 'stress' over and above its effect on metabolic rate. We tested these hypotheses in captive zebra finches, by inducing an increase in MR using a psychological stressor (noise), and compared its effect on corticosterone (CORT, the primary avian GC) with the effect induced by a decrease in ambient temperature increasing MR to a similar extent. We found the increase in CORT induced by the psychological stressor to be indistinguishable from the level expected based on the noise effect on MR. We further found that a handling and restraint stressor that increased CORT levels also resulted in increased blood glucose levels, corroborating a key assumption underlying our hypothesis. Thus, GC variation primarily reflected variation in energy expenditure, independently of psychological stress. GC levels have many downstream effects besides glucose mobilization, and we propose that these effects can be interpreted as adjustments of physiological functions to the metabolic level at which an organism operates.
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Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.