Research data ยท Pain and nociception

Hot plate

From 2021 to 2025, 762 animal research papers mentioned the hot plate in their title or abstract, ranking it 21st of the 90 tests we track.

That is 8% fewer than the 830 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.

762 animal research papers from 2021 to 2025 mentioned the test
8% fewer papers than in 2011 to 2015
21st of the 90 tests by papers from 2021 to 2025
62% of these papers used mice and 44% used rats

Papers by year

Animal research papers that mention the hot plate, 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
200191
200291
2003109
2004117
2005128
2006115
2007123
2008103
2009121
2010165
2011180
2012158
2013162
2014160
2015170
2016165
2017150
2018164
2019145
2020162
2021166
2022142
2023134
2024138
2025182
2026 (part year)146

Papers that mention the hot plate fell from 166 in 2021 to 134 in 2023, then rose to 182 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.

Mice led rats every year from 2001 to 2025.

Papers that mention the hot plate 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
20015947
20026539
20037955
20047963
20059366
20068649
20079650
20088638
20099254
201012381
201112496
201211672
201312671
201410879
201511184
201611378
20179973
201811469
20199769
202010078
202110972
20228457
20237266
20248461
202512777

Which species the papers used

Each bar is a share of the 762 papers from 2021 to 2025. A paper can use more than one species, so the shares can add to more than 100%.

Species

Mouse
476 papers 62%
Rat
333 papers 44%
Other animals
28 papers 4%
Zebrafish
2 papers under 1%

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 575 of the 762 papers, so each bar is a share of those 575.

Sprague-Dawley rats
82 papers 14%
Wistar rats
80 papers 14%
C57BL mice
61 papers 11%
BALB/c mice
27 papers 5%
ICR mice
12 papers 2%
Knockout mice
9 papers 2%
Transgenic mice
9 papers 2%
DBA mice
4 papers 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 the hot plate and study that disease model, with its share of the 762 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

450 papers 59%
45 papers 6%
41 papers 5%
25 papers 3%
13 papers 2%

Tests mentioned alongside the hot plate

Each bar counts the papers from 2021 to 2025 that mention both tests, with its share of the 762 papers that mention the hot plate.

Papers from 2021 to 2025 that mention both tests

158 papers 21%
150 papers 20%
141 papers 19%
108 papers 14%
57 papers 7%
55 papers 7%
36 papers 5%
34 papers 4%

The most cited papers from 2021 to 2025

These papers from 2021 to 2025 mention the hot plate and have the most citations, as counted by NIH's iCite on November 5, 2026. We show two of the five most cited papers and leave out three because of words in their titles.

  1. Central and peripheral pain intervention by Ophiorrhizarugosa leaves: Potential underlying mechanisms and insight into the role of pain modulators.

    J Ethnopharmacol, 2021. 75 citations.

  2. Microglia TREM1-mediated neuroinflammation contributes to central sensitization via the NF-ฮบB pathway in a chronic migraine model.

    J Headache Pain, 2024. 70 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 the hot plate only in its methods is missed, so the count runs low. The count includes 6 reviews. For 187 of the 762 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 pain and nociception tests

These pain and nociception 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). Hot plate in published research [Data set]. https://conductscience.com/data/behavioral-tests/hot-plate

BibTeX

@misc{conductscience_hot_plate_2026,
  author = {{ConductScience}},
  title = {Hot plate in published research},
  year = {2026},
  month = nov,
  url = {https://conductscience.com/data/behavioral-tests/hot-plate},
  note = {Data set, released November 10, 2026},
}

Apparatus for the hot plate

Our store sells two products for the hot plate.

Shop the apparatus

Papers that name our apparatus

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

  • 5 papers from 2023 to 2026 name our Rodent Hot Plate Pain Assay. See the papers