Behavioral Neuroscience papers

Pofolia’s corpus holds 73 papers from Behavioral Neuroscience (1994–2026), each with a short summary. Below, the 20 most-cited, then the most recently added.

At a glance

• Most cited: Review of the Psychometric Evidence of the Perceived Stress Scale (2012, 2,312 citations).
• The 20 papers listed have 20,716 citations between them.
• 17 of the 19 with a known journal quartile appeared in a Q1 journal.
• 9 have a free full text (open access).
• Most frequent journals: Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, Journal of Neuroscience, Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences.
• Published between 2012 and 2020.

Most cited

Ranked by citation count. Because citations accumulate over time, this list naturally leans towards work published a few years ago; for where the field is now, see “recently added”. How to read the signals

• Review of the Psychometric Evidence of the Perceived Stress Scale

  Asian Nursing Research · 2012 · Q1 · FWCI 6.07 · 2,312 citations

  A review of 19 studies found the 10-item Perceived Stress Scale (PSS) generally superior in psychometric properties compared to the 14-item version, while the 4-item scale performed worst.

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• Regulation of the Hypothalamic‐Pituitary‐Adrenocortical Stress Response

  Comprehensive physiology · 2016 · Q1 · SJR 2.00 · 1,813 citations

  The HPA axis is crucial for stress adaptation, orchestrating glucocorticoid release via distinct neural pathways for reactive versus anticipatory responses.

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• Chronic stress, glucocorticoid receptor resistance, inflammation, and disease risk

  Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences · 2012 · Q1 · SJR 3.00 · FWCI 18.72 · 1,393 citations · Open access

  Chronic stress leads to glucocorticoid receptor resistance (GCR), impairing the body's ability to control inflammation and increasing the risk of illness, as demonstrated in two viral challenge studies.

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• Allostatic Load and Its Impact on Health: A Systematic Review

  Psychotherapy and Psychosomatics · 2020 · Q1 · SJR 3.00 · FWCI 14.04 · 1,185 citations

  A systematic review of 267 studies found that allostatic load, the cumulative burden of chronic stress, is linked to worse physical and mental health outcomes.

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• Brain on stress: How the social environment gets under the skin

  Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences · 2012 · Q1 · SJR 3.00 · FWCI 24.59 · 1,181 citations · Open access

  Chronic stress, influenced by life events, genetics, and behaviors, leads to physiological changes and alters brain circuits, potentially causing disease.

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• The impact of stress on body function: a review

  PubMed · 2017 · FWCI 14.12 · 1,090 citations

  This review synthesizes how various stressors can trigger or worsen diseases by disrupting homeostasis and leading to pathophysiological complications.

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• More than a feeling: A unified view of stress measurement for population science

  Frontiers in Neuroendocrinology · 2018 · Q1 · SJR 2.00 · FWCI 23.69 · 1,061 citations

  This paper proposes a unified conceptual model and precise language to integrate epidemiological, affective, and psychophysiological perspectives on stress measurement for population science.

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• Neurobiological and Systemic Effects of Chronic Stress

  Chronic Stress · 2017 · Q1 · SJR 1.00 · FWCI 20.57 · 1,000 citations · Open access

  Chronic stress dysregulates brain circuitry, leading to maladaptive behavioral and physiological responses that contribute to pathophysiology. The brain's plasticity offers potential for therapies targeting these stress-induced imbalances.

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• The human stress response

  Nature Reviews Endocrinology · 2019 · Q1 · SJR 9.00 · FWCI 28.68 · 986 citations

  The human stress response, orchestrated by the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) axis and synchronized with circadian rhythms, initially aids survival but chronic activation becomes maladaptive.

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• Rethinking stress: The role of mindsets in determining the stress response.

  Journal of Personality and Social Psychology · 2013 · Q1 · SJR 3.00 · FWCI 8.66 · 966 citations

  Believing stress is enhancing, rather than debilitating, is linked to a more moderate physiological stress response and a greater desire for feedback.

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• Stress and Health: A Review of Psychobiological Processes

  Annual Review of Psychology · 2020 · Q1 · SJR 12.00 · FWCI 36.49 · 931 citations

  This review synthesizes the extensive science linking stress to negative health outcomes, highlighting direct psychobiological pathways and indirect behavioral influences.

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• Early developmental emergence of human amygdala–prefrontal connectivity after maternal deprivation

  Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences · 2013 · Q1 · SJR 3.00 · FWCI 17.43 · 896 citations · Open access

  Children who experienced early maternal deprivation show an accelerated, 'mature' pattern of amygdala-prefrontal cortex connectivity, resembling adolescents rather than typical children.

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• A Comprehensive Overview on Stress Neurobiology: Basic Concepts and Clinical Implications

  Frontiers in Behavioral Neuroscience · 2018 · Q1 · SJR 1.00 · FWCI 17.66 · 860 citations · Open access

  This review synthesizes decades of research to explain how the brain's stress system detects threats and triggers physiological responses via the SAM and HPA axes.

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• Paternal Stress Exposure Alters Sperm MicroRNA Content and Reprograms Offspring HPA Stress Axis Regulation

  Journal of Neuroscience · 2013 · Q1 · SJR 1.00 · FWCI 21.45 · 808 citations · Open access

  Paternal chronic stress before breeding significantly reduces offspring HPA stress axis responsivity, mediated by altered sperm microRNA content and epigenetic reprogramming in offspring brain regions.

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• Inflammation: The Common Pathway of Stress-Related Diseases

  Frontiers in Human Neuroscience · 2017 · Q1 · FWCI 17.14 · 787 citations · Open access

  Chronic stress, a hallmark of modernization, may lead to diseases like atherosclerosis, NAFLD, and depression through a common pathway of chronic inflammation.

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• Glucocorticoid regulation of inflammation and its functional correlates: from HPA axis to glucocorticoid receptor dysfunction

  Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences · 2012 · Q1 · SJR 1.00 · FWCI 13.94 · 723 citations

  Impaired glucocorticoid receptor (GR) function, leading to glucocorticoid resistance, is a key molecular mechanism underlying enhanced inflammation and susceptibility to autoimmune diseases.

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• Chronic Stress, Cortisol Dysfunction, and Pain: A Psychoneuroendocrine Rationale for Stress Management in Pain Rehabilitation

  Physical Therapy · 2014 · Q1 · SJR 1.00 · FWCI 4.57 · 713 citations · Open access

  Chronic stress can lead to cortisol dysfunction, widespread inflammation, and persistent pain, suggesting that physical therapists should screen for non-pain-related stress to improve patient outcomes.

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• Hypothalamic–pituitary–adrenal and hypothalamic–pituitary–gonadal axes: sex differences in regulation of stress responsivity

  Stress · 2017 · Q2 · FWCI 12.61 · 698 citations

  Gonadal hormones, particularly estradiol in females, significantly influence the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) axis, leading to sex differences in stress response. Female mice and rats exhibit a more robust HPA axis response compared to males, partly due to fluctuating gonadal steroid levels across the estrous cycle.

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• Revisiting the Stress Concept: Implications for Affective Disorders

  Journal of Neuroscience · 2020 · Q1 · SJR 1.00 · FWCI 37.38 · 664 citations · Open access

  Stress is reframed from an unusual threat response to an ongoing, adaptive process of environmental assessment and coping, with its neurobiology now broadly understood.

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• Understanding the broad influence of sex hormones and sex differences in the brain

  Journal of Neuroscience Research · 2016 · Q2 · SJR 1.00 · FWCI 15.92 · 649 citations

  Sex hormones profoundly impact brain structure and function in both males and females through genomic and non-genomic pathways, influencing diverse neural systems and behaviors.

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Recently added

• Association between the overnight urinary cortisol-to-creatinine ratio and self-reported osteoporosis in community-dwelling Taiwanese adults: a population-based cross-sectional study

  BMC Endocrine Disorders · 2026 · Q1 · SJR 1.00

  A population-based study of 847 Taiwanese adults (≥53 years) found no significant association between overnight urinary cortisol-to-creatinine ratio and self-reported osteoporosis.

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• Object‐Control Skills and Cortisol Response During Physical Education Lessons in Primary School Children

  Journal of School Health · 2026 · Q1

  Fourth-grade children had lower cortisol levels than fifth-graders after physical education (PE) lessons, and OC exercises specifically reduced cortisol in fifth-graders, unlike younger students.

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• Evidence of Strong Overlap Between Perceived Stress Scale and Neuroticism Item Structure in Two Samples

  Assessment · 2026 · Q1 · SJR 2.00

  The widely used Perceived Stress Scale (PSS) may primarily measure trait neuroticism and low self-efficacy rather than actual stress exposure or transient appraisals, according to factor analyses of two samples.

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• Cracks in the foundation: disrupted epistemic trust as a link between trauma, PTSD and disturbances in self-organization

  Translational Psychiatry · 2026 · Q1 · SJR 2.00 · Open access

  Early relational trauma, not trauma type or timing alone, strongly predicts disrupted epistemic trust (evaluating and trusting social information), which in turn mediates the link to PTSD and cPTSD symptoms.

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• Chronic stress-induced LC-NE dysfunction: cellular and axonal mechanisms underlying impaired neuromodulation

  Frontiers in Neuroscience · 2026 · Q2 · SJR 1.00 · Open access

  Chronic stress impairs the brain's locus coeruleus-noradrenergic (LC-NE) system by damaging its neurons and long-reaching axons, reducing the system's ability to flexibly switch between alert and focused states, rather than just altering norepinephrine levels.

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• Teachers’ acute cardiovascular response to observed classroom disruptions and resulting chronic endocrine stress. Analysis of dynamic effects with global assessments for state space grids

  Frontiers in Physiology · 2026 · Q2 · SJR 1.00 · Open access

  Teachers with less adaptive heart rate (HR) and heart rate variability (HRV) responses to classroom disruptions showed greater physiological dysregulation, indicated by hair hormone patterns, compared to those with more adaptive responses.

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• Not just a walk: differential psychological and physiological responses to park-based walking in postmenopausal women with different baseline happiness levels

  Journal of PHYSIOLOGICAL ANTHROPOLOGY · 2026 · Q1

  A single 60-min park walk improved psychological well-being and altered salivary immune markers in postmenopausal women, with greater physiological and psychological benefits observed in the lower-happiness group.

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• The hidden burden of college life: Stress, sleep, and salivary biomarkers in students—A cross-sectional study

  PLOS mental health. · 2026 · Q2 · Open access

  High perceived stress in 90.4% of undergraduates correlated with fatigue and poor sleep, and was linked to specific salivary biomarker changes: increased sympathetic activation (α-amylase), HPA axis dysregulation (cortisol), circadian disruption (melatonin), and mucosal immune activation (IgA, lysozyme).

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Journals in this field

The journals that publish most of this field’s papers. Quartile (Q1–Q4), SJR and h-index are from SCImago Journal Rank; “in this field” is how many of the journal’s pooled papers belong here. What is a Q1 journal? · What is the h-index?

Every journal in Behavioral Neuroscience (Q1–Q4) →

Other subfields in Neuroscience

• Cognitive Neuroscience
• Biological Psychiatry
• Sensory Systems
• Endocrine and Autonomic Systems
• Developmental Neuroscience
• Cellular and Molecular Neuroscience
• Neurology (Neuroscience)

All subfields of Neuroscience →

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