Research data ยท Attention and executive function

Attentional set shifting

From 2021 to 2025, 113 animal research papers mentioned attentional set shifting in their title or abstract, ranking it 52nd of the 90 tests we track.

That is 23% fewer than the 146 papers of 2011 to 2015. Papers that mention any of the 90 tests rose 22% over the same span. The 2021 to 2025 count may run low because of a dip in PubMed's indexing, explained under the year chart.

113 animal research papers from 2021 to 2025 mentioned the test
23% fewer papers than in 2011 to 2015
52nd of the 90 tests by papers from 2021 to 2025
68% of these papers used rats and 27% used mice

Papers by year

Animal research papers that mention attentional set shifting, by year, 2001 to 2026

The 2026 bar counts papers added to PubMed by November 8, 2026.

  • Papers in a full year
  • 2026 so far
Show the counts for each year
Papers by year
YearPapers
20011
20025
20035
20047
200510
200610
200712
200823
200912
201018
201119
201227
201333
201436
201531
201634
201735
201824
201918
202018
202133
202223
202320
202418
202519
2026 (part year)16

Papers that mention attentional set shifting fell from 33 in 2021 to 18 in 2024, then rose to 19 in 2025. Papers that PubMed indexed under the MeSH heading Animals also fell and rose, from 200,221 in 2021 to 156,447 in 2023 and 235,479 in 2025. We take each paper's species from PubMed's indexing whenever it names one, so part of this dip may come from the indexing rather than from fewer studies.

Papers that mention attentional set shifting in mice and in rats, by year, 2001 to 2025

  • Mouse
  • Rat
Show the counts for each year and species
Papers by year, mice and rats
YearMouseRat
200101
200211
200304
200413
200516
200617
200727
2008515
200927
2010114
2011611
2012418
2013428
2014628
2015621
2016927
20171025
2018816
2019113
2020414
2021923
2022516
2023415
2024513
2025810

Which species the papers used

Each bar is a share of the 113 papers from 2021 to 2025. A paper can use more than one species, so the shares can add to more than 100%.

Species

Rat
77 papers 68%
Mouse
31 papers 27%
Nonhuman primate
7 papers 6%
Other animals
3 papers 3%

โ€œOther animalsโ€ counts papers that use none of the other species in this chart.

Strains and genetic lines

Strain names come from the MeSH terms PubMed adds when it indexes a paper. PubMed has indexed 92 of the 113 papers, so each bar is a share of those 92.

Sprague-Dawley rats
20 papers 22%
C57BL mice
13 papers 14%
Wistar rats
7 papers 8%
Long-Evans rats
7 papers 8%
Knockout mice
4 papers 4%
Spontaneously hypertensive rats
2 papers 2%
Fischer 344 rats
2 papers 2%
Transgenic mice
2 papers 2%

A paper indexed under two of these headings, such as knockout mice and a strain, counts under both.

Disease models these papers study

Each bar counts the papers from 2021 to 2025 that mention attentional set shifting and study that disease model, with its share of the 113 papers. The model comes from a paper's MeSH terms. For a paper PubMed has not indexed, it comes from PubTator 3, NCBI's text-mining service, when that service finds the disease in the title or abstract. A paper can count under more than one model.

Papers from 2021 to 2025 by disease model

Tests mentioned alongside attentional set shifting

Each bar counts the papers from 2021 to 2025 that mention both tests, with its share of the 113 papers that mention attentional set shifting.

Papers from 2021 to 2025 that mention both tests

The most cited papers from 2021 to 2025

These papers from 2021 to 2025 mention attentional set shifting and have the most citations, as counted by NIH's iCite on November 5, 2026.

  1. Prefrontal deep projection neurons enable cognitive flexibility via persistent feedback monitoring.

    Cell, 2021. 99 citations.

  2. Memantine/Aripiprazole Combination Alleviates Cognitive Dysfunction in Valproic Acid Rat Model of Autism: Hippocampal CREB/BDNF Signaling and Glutamate Homeostasis.

    Neurotherapeutics, 2023. 49 citations.

  3. Chronic adolescent stress causes sustained impairment of cognitive flexibility and hippocampal synaptic strength in female rats.

    Neurobiol Stress, 2021. 44 citations.

  4. Remifentanil self-administration in mice promotes sex-specific prefrontal cortex dysfunction underlying deficits in cognitive flexibility.

    Neuropsychopharmacology, 2021. 34 citations.

  5. Impaired Cognitive Flexibility and Working Memory Precedes Depression: A Rat Model to Study Depression.

    Neuropsychobiology, 2021. 32 citations.

How we counted

A count is the number of animal research papers whose title or abstract mentions one of the test's search terms. It is not a count of experiments, labs or animals.

A paper that mentions attentional set shifting only in its methods is missed, so the count runs low. The count includes 1 review. For 21 of the 113 papers, PubMed's indexing gave no species, so the species came from PubTator 3 finding one in the title or abstract.

The test's search terms are in the test list download. The full method, with each source and its terms of use, is on our main page, Behavioral tests in published research.

More attention and executive function tests

These attention and executive function tests also have a page, with their papers from 2021 to 2025. Each test with 30 or more papers gets one.

How to cite

APA

ConductScience. (2026, November 10). Attentional set shifting in published research [Data set]. https://conductscience.com/data/behavioral-tests/attentional-set-shifting

BibTeX

@misc{conductscience_attentional_set_shifting_2026,
  author = {{ConductScience}},
  title = {Attentional set shifting in published research},
  year = {2026},
  month = nov,
  url = {https://conductscience.com/data/behavioral-tests/attentional-set-shifting},
  note = {Data set, released November 10, 2026},
}

Apparatus for attentional set shifting

Our store sells five products for attentional set shifting.

Shop the apparatus

Papers that name our apparatus

We keep our own list of published papers whose text names our equipment. Those that mention attentional set shifting in the title or abstract are already in the counts above.

  • 1 paper from 2026 names our Attentional Set Shifting (IDED) Chamber. See the papers