Research data · Motor function and endurance

Gait analysis

Name: Gait analysis in published research
Creator: ConductScience
Published: 2026-11-10

From 2021 to 2025, 821 animal research papers mentioned gait analysis in their title or abstract, ranking it 19th of the 90 tests we track.

That is 2.1 times the 389 papers of 2011 to 2015. Papers that mention any of the 90 tests grew to 1.2 times as many over the same span.

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821 animal research papers from 2021 to 2025 mentioned the test

2.1 times as many papers as in 2011 to 2015

19th of the 90 tests by papers from 2021 to 2025

37% of these papers used mice and 35% used rats

Papers by year

Animal research papers that mention gait analysis, 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
Year	Papers
2001	24
2002	17
2003	17
2004	26
2005	26
2006	31
2007	44
2008	37
2009	60
2010	64
2011	56
2012	65
2013	101
2014	81
2015	86
2016	104
2017	132
2018	125
2019	124
2020	129
2021	145
2022	150
2023	154
2024	146
2025	226
2026 (part year)	239

Papers that mention gait analysis in mice and in rats, by year, 2001 to 2025

Mouse
Rat

Mouse Rat

Show the counts for each year and species

Papers by year, mice and rats
Year	Mouse	Rat
2001	8	8
2002	3	6
2003	1	6
2004	4	5
2005	5	8
2006	3	13
2007	7	17
2008	8	12
2009	14	18
2010	22	18
2011	13	21
2012	18	18
2013	22	34
2014	11	36
2015	25	27
2016	35	34
2017	34	59
2018	31	52
2019	40	45
2020	40	45
2021	45	43
2022	46	58
2023	60	49
2024	53	53
2025	103	85

Which species the papers used

Each bar is a share of the 821 papers from 2021 to 2025. A paper can use more than one species, so the shares can add to more than 100%.

Species

Mouse

307 37%

Rat

288 35%

Other animals

237 29%

Nonhuman primate

4 under 1%

Fruit fly

3 under 1%

“Other animals” 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 629 of the 821 papers, so each bar is a share of those 629.

Sprague-Dawley rats

130 21%

C57BL mice

129 21%

Wistar rats

25 4%

Knockout mice

23 4%

Transgenic mice

17 3%

Lewis rats

4 1%

mdx mice

3 under 1%

Transgenic rats

2 under 1%

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 gait analysis and study that disease model, with its share of the 821 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

Pain conditions

146 18%

Spinal cord injury

127 15%

Parkinson disease

52 6%

Stroke and brain ischemia

52 6%

Brain injury

22 3%

Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis

12 1%

Multiple sclerosis and demyelination

11 1%

Aging

8 1%

Cognitive impairment and dementia

6 1%

Diabetes

6 1%

Tests mentioned alongside gait analysis

Each bar counts the papers from 2021 to 2025 that mention both tests, with its share of the 821 papers that mention gait analysis.

Papers from 2021 to 2025 that mention both tests

55 7%

53 6%

39 5%

29 4%

27 3%

20 2%

12 1%

10 1%

The most cited papers from 2021 to 2025

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

Schwann cell-derived exosomes containing MFG-E8 modify macrophage/microglial polarization for attenuating inflammation via the SOCS3/STAT3 pathway after spinal cord injury.
Cell Death Dis, 2023. 160 citations.
Inhibition of Acyl-CoA Synthetase Long-Chain Family Member 4 Facilitates Neurological Recovery After Stroke by Regulation Ferroptosis.
Front Cell Neurosci, 2021. 130 citations.
Cytosolic phospholipase A2 in infiltrating monocyte derived macrophages does not impair recovery after spinal cord injury in female mice.
Sci Rep, 2025. 128 citations.
3D-bioprinted BMSC-laden biomimetic multiphasic scaffolds for efficient repair of osteochondral defects in an osteoarthritic rat model.
Biomaterials, 2021. 125 citations.
3,4-Dimethoxychalcone, a caloric restriction mimetic, enhances TFEB-mediated autophagy and alleviates pyroptosis and necroptosis after spinal cord injury.
Theranostics, 2023. 86 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 gait analysis only in its methods is missed, so the count runs low. The count includes 29 reviews. For 193 of the 821 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 motor function and endurance tests

These motor function and endurance 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). Gait analysis in published research [Data set]. https://conductscience.com/data/behavioral-tests/gait-analysis

BibTeX

@misc{conductscience_gait_analysis_2026,
  author = {{ConductScience}},
  title = {Gait analysis in published research},
  year = {2026},
  month = nov,
  url = {https://conductscience.com/data/behavioral-tests/gait-analysis},
  note = {Data set, released November 10, 2026},
}

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