Research data · Disease model
Attention deficit hyperactivity disorder
From 2021 to 2025, 107 animal research papers on attention deficit hyperactivity disorder mentioned at least one behavioral test, most often the open field.
That is 20% fewer than the 133 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.
The tests these papers mention
The open field appears in 32% of the papers on attention deficit hyperactivity disorder and in 12% of all 32,277 papers that mention a test. That makes it 2.6 times as common in this research. Each bar counts the papers from 2021 to 2025 on attention deficit hyperactivity disorder that mention the test, with its share of the 107 papers. A paper that mentions two tests counts under both.
The 15 tests these papers mention most
All 38 tests these papers mention
| Test | Papers | Share of the 107 papers on attention deficit hyperactivity disorder | Share of all 32,277 papers that mention a test |
|---|---|---|---|
| Open field | 34 | 32% | 12% |
| Elevated plus maze | 20 | 19% | 9% |
| Morris water maze | 15 | 14% | 17% |
| Novel object recognition | 15 | 14% | 9% |
| Y-maze | 14 | 13% | 6% |
| Five-choice serial reaction time task | 12 | 11% | under 1% |
| Fear conditioning | 7 | 7% | 6% |
| Forced swim test | 6 | 6% | 9% |
| Prepulse inhibition and acoustic startle | 5 | 5% | 2% |
| Operant conditioning | 5 | 5% | 3% |
| Tail suspension test | 4 | 4% | 4% |
| Social interaction test | 4 | 4% | 1% |
| Self-grooming | 3 | 3% | 1% |
| Attentional set shifting | 3 | 3% | under 1% |
| Wheel running | 3 | 3% | 3% |
| Self-administration | 3 | 3% | 4% |
| Sucrose preference test | 3 | 3% | 5% |
| Light-dark box | 2 | 2% | 2% |
| Cincinnati water maze | 2 | 2% | under 1% |
| Barnes maze | 2 | 2% | 2% |
| Conditioned place preference | 2 | 2% | 3% |
| T-maze | 2 | 2% | 1% |
| Hebb-Williams maze | 2 | 2% | under 1% |
| Resident-intruder test | 2 | 2% | under 1% |
| Marble burying | 2 | 2% | 1% |
| Passive avoidance | 1 | 1% | 4% |
| Plus maze for place and response learning | 1 | 1% | under 1% |
| Splash test | 1 | 1% | under 1% |
| Object location test | 1 | 1% | 1% |
| Negative geotaxis and climbing assays | 1 | 1% | 1% |
| Radial arm maze | 1 | 1% | 1% |
| Step-down avoidance | 1 | 1% | under 1% |
| Treadmill running | 1 | 1% | 6% |
| Hot plate | 1 | 1% | 2% |
| Von Frey test | 1 | 1% | 4% |
| Rotarod | 1 | 1% | 6% |
| Active avoidance (shuttle box) | 1 | 1% | 1% |
| Radial arm water maze | 1 | 1% | under 1% |
Papers by year
Animal research papers on attention deficit hyperactivity disorder that mention a behavioral test, 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
| Year | Papers |
|---|---|
| 2001 | 2 |
| 2002 | 8 |
| 2003 | 6 |
| 2004 | 9 |
| 2005 | 11 |
| 2006 | 11 |
| 2007 | 9 |
| 2008 | 11 |
| 2009 | 15 |
| 2010 | 11 |
| 2011 | 27 |
| 2012 | 18 |
| 2013 | 33 |
| 2014 | 26 |
| 2015 | 29 |
| 2016 | 26 |
| 2017 | 19 |
| 2018 | 13 |
| 2019 | 18 |
| 2020 | 16 |
| 2021 | 23 |
| 2022 | 17 |
| 2023 | 25 |
| 2024 | 21 |
| 2025 | 21 |
| 2026 (part year) | 21 |
Papers on attention deficit hyperactivity disorder fell from 23 in 2021 to 17 in 2022, then rose to 21 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 disease models from PubMed's indexing whenever PubMed has indexed the paper, so part of this dip may come from the indexing rather than from fewer studies.
Which species the papers used
Each bar is a share of the 107 papers from 2021 to 2025. A paper can use more than one species, so the shares can add to more than 100%.
Species
Which papers count
A paper counts here when it is animal research, mentions at least one of the 90 tests and studies attention deficit hyperactivity disorder.
A paper counts under attention deficit hyperactivity disorder when its MeSH terms, the subject headings PubMed adds when it indexes a paper, include this heading.
- Attention Deficit Disorder with Hyperactivity
For a paper PubMed has not indexed, PubTator 3, NCBI's text-mining service, supplies the disease model when it finds the disease in the title or abstract. A paper can count under more than one disease model.
Each paper and its disease models are in the downloads. The full method, with each source and its terms of use, is on our main page, Behavioral tests in published research.
More disease models
These disease models also have a page, with their papers from 2021 to 2025 that mention a test. Each disease model with 100 or more such papers gets one.
- Cognitive impairment and dementia 4,961
- Anxiety 3,041
- Depression 2,827
- Pain conditions 2,617
- Alzheimer disease 2,445
- Substance use disorders 1,599
- Psychological stress 1,484
- Stroke and brain ischemia 1,278
- Parkinson disease 918
- Brain injury 841
- Diabetes 795
- Obesity and high-fat diet 761
- Aging 700
- Epilepsy and seizures 572
- Autism spectrum disorder 484
- Schizophrenia and psychosis 401
- Sleep loss and sleep disorders 400
- Post-traumatic stress 392
- Spinal cord injury 382
- Multiple sclerosis and demyelination 223
- Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis 108
How to cite
APA
ConductScience. (2026, November 10). Behavioral tests in attention deficit hyperactivity disorder research [Data set]. https://conductscience.com/data/behavioral-tests/models/adhd
BibTeX
@misc{conductscience_adhd_2026,
author = {{ConductScience}},
title = {Behavioral tests in attention deficit hyperactivity disorder research},
year = {2026},
month = nov,
url = {https://conductscience.com/data/behavioral-tests/models/adhd},
note = {Data set, released November 10, 2026},
}Shop apparatus by test
Our store sells apparatus for nine of the 10 tests these papers mention most, all but prepulse inhibition and acoustic startle.
- Open field
- Elevated plus maze
- Morris water maze
- Novel object recognition
- Y-maze
- Five-choice serial reaction time task
- Fear conditioning
- Forced swim test
- Operant conditioning
