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Updated: Jul 2, 2026

Chronic Stress Shifts Effort-Related Choice Behavior in a Y-Maze Barrier Task in Mice
Published on: August 13, 2020
Stress hormones and mate choice
Jerry F Husak1, Ignacio T Moore
1Department of Biological Sciences, 2119 Derring Hall, Virginia Tech, Blacksburg, VA 24061, USA.
Abstract:
A few recent studies have suggested that glucocorticoid stress hormones can play a role in sexual selection. In terms of mate choice, these studies have shown that individuals can exhibit preferences for mates with either low baseline or peak glucocorticoid levels. This appears to occur because stress hormones can be key mediators of many condition-dependent, sexually selected traits that serve as honest signals of mate quality. We suggest that our understanding of how sexual selection can influence the glucocorticoid stress response will be expanded by studying the interactions among glucocorticoid stress hormones, sex steroids and body condition.
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