Research data · Disease model
Alzheimer disease
From 2021 to 2025, 2,445 animal research papers on Alzheimer disease mentioned at least one behavioral test, most often the Morris water maze.
That is 2.8 times the 877 papers of 2011 to 2015. Papers that mention any of the 90 tests grew to 1.2 times as many over the same span.
The tests these papers mention
The Morris water maze appears in 60% of the papers on Alzheimer disease and in 17% of all 32,277 papers that mention a test. That makes it 3.6 times as common in this research. Each bar counts the papers from 2021 to 2025 on Alzheimer disease that mention the test, with its share of the 2,445 papers. A paper that mentions two tests counts under both.
The 15 tests these papers mention most
All 66 tests these papers mention
| Test | Papers | Share of the 2,445 papers on Alzheimer disease | Share of all 32,277 papers that mention a test |
|---|---|---|---|
| Morris water maze | 1,456 | 60% | 17% |
| Novel object recognition | 568 | 23% | 9% |
| Y-maze | 471 | 19% | 6% |
| Passive avoidance | 262 | 11% | 4% |
| Open field | 185 | 8% | 12% |
| Elevated plus maze | 143 | 6% | 9% |
| Fear conditioning | 125 | 5% | 6% |
| Barnes maze | 96 | 4% | 2% |
| Treadmill running | 73 | 3% | 6% |
| Rotarod | 56 | 2% | 6% |
| T-maze | 55 | 2% | 1% |
| Object location test | 49 | 2% | 1% |
| Forced swim test | 48 | 2% | 9% |
| Radial arm maze | 47 | 2% | 1% |
| Nest building | 41 | 2% | 1% |
| Wheel running | 36 | 1% | 3% |
| Tail suspension test | 30 | 1% | 4% |
| Light-dark box | 23 | 1% | 2% |
| Negative geotaxis and climbing assays | 23 | 1% | 1% |
| Step-down avoidance | 20 | 1% | under 1% |
| Beam walking | 18 | 1% | 2% |
| Sucrose preference test | 17 | 1% | 5% |
| Active avoidance (shuttle box) | 16 | 1% | 1% |
| Touchscreen operant tasks | 13 | 1% | under 1% |
| Radial arm water maze | 13 | 1% | under 1% |
| Prepulse inhibition and acoustic startle | 11 | under 1% | 2% |
| Grip strength | 11 | under 1% | 4% |
| Operant conditioning | 8 | under 1% | 3% |
| Von Frey test | 7 | under 1% | 4% |
| Novelty-suppressed feeding | 7 | under 1% | 1% |
| Active place avoidance | 6 | under 1% | under 1% |
| Olfactory tests | 6 | under 1% | under 1% |
| Hole-board | 6 | under 1% | 1% |
| Three-chamber sociability test | 6 | under 1% | 1% |
| Marble burying | 6 | under 1% | 1% |
| Elevated zero maze | 6 | under 1% | under 1% |
| Five-choice serial reaction time task | 5 | under 1% | under 1% |
| Predator odor exposure | 5 | under 1% | 1% |
| Novel tank test | 4 | under 1% | 1% |
| Tail flick | 4 | under 1% | 2% |
| Resident-intruder test | 4 | under 1% | under 1% |
| Wire hang and inverted grid | 4 | under 1% | 1% |
| Splash test | 3 | under 1% | under 1% |
| Formalin test | 3 | under 1% | 2% |
| Self-grooming | 3 | under 1% | 1% |
| Rotational behavior (rotometer) | 2 | under 1% | under 1% |
| Gait analysis | 2 | under 1% | 3% |
| Adhesive removal test | 2 | under 1% | under 1% |
| Cold plate | 2 | under 1% | under 1% |
| Hebb-Williams maze | 2 | under 1% | under 1% |
| Pole test | 2 | under 1% | under 1% |
| Learned helplessness | 2 | under 1% | under 1% |
| Burrowing | 2 | under 1% | under 1% |
| Three-choice serial reaction time task | 2 | under 1% | under 1% |
| Social interaction test | 2 | under 1% | 1% |
| Corner test | 1 | under 1% | under 1% |
| Hargreaves plantar test | 1 | under 1% | 1% |
| Elevated T-maze | 1 | under 1% | under 1% |
| Paw pressure test | 1 | under 1% | under 1% |
| Self-administration | 1 | under 1% | 4% |
| Grid walking (foot fault) | 1 | under 1% | under 1% |
| Skilled reaching | 1 | under 1% | under 1% |
| Plus maze for place and response learning | 1 | under 1% | under 1% |
| Hot plate | 1 | under 1% | 2% |
| Attentional set shifting | 1 | under 1% | under 1% |
| Water Y-maze | 1 | under 1% | under 1% |
Papers by year
Animal research papers on Alzheimer disease 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 | 21 |
| 2002 | 30 |
| 2003 | 26 |
| 2004 | 31 |
| 2005 | 37 |
| 2006 | 46 |
| 2007 | 44 |
| 2008 | 62 |
| 2009 | 85 |
| 2010 | 106 |
| 2011 | 112 |
| 2012 | 145 |
| 2013 | 200 |
| 2014 | 201 |
| 2015 | 219 |
| 2016 | 243 |
| 2017 | 259 |
| 2018 | 275 |
| 2019 | 363 |
| 2020 | 375 |
| 2021 | 447 |
| 2022 | 496 |
| 2023 | 478 |
| 2024 | 485 |
| 2025 | 539 |
| 2026 (part year) | 481 |
Which species the papers used
Each bar is a share of the 2,445 papers from 2021 to 2025. A paper can use more than one species, so the shares can add to more than 100%.
Species
“Other animals” counts papers that use none of the other species in this chart.
Which papers count
A paper counts here when it is animal research, mentions at least one of the 90 tests and studies Alzheimer disease.
A paper counts under Alzheimer disease when its MeSH terms, the subject headings PubMed adds when it indexes a paper, include this heading.
- Alzheimer Disease
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
- 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
- Attention deficit hyperactivity disorder 107
How to cite
APA
ConductScience. (2026, November 10). Behavioral tests in Alzheimer disease research [Data set]. https://conductscience.com/data/behavioral-tests/models/alzheimers-disease
BibTeX
@misc{conductscience_alzheimers_disease_2026,
author = {{ConductScience}},
title = {Behavioral tests in Alzheimer disease research},
year = {2026},
month = nov,
url = {https://conductscience.com/data/behavioral-tests/models/alzheimers-disease},
note = {Data set, released November 10, 2026},
}Shop apparatus by test
Our store sells apparatus for all the 10 tests these papers mention most.
- Morris water maze
- Novel object recognition
- Y-maze
- Passive avoidance
- Open field
- Elevated plus maze
- Fear conditioning
- Barnes maze
- Treadmill running
- Rotarod
