Research data · Disease model
Autism spectrum disorder
From 2021 to 2025, 484 animal research papers on autism spectrum disorder mentioned at least one behavioral test, most often the three-chamber sociability test.
That is 3.5 times the 140 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 three-chamber sociability test appears in 27% of the papers on autism spectrum disorder and in 1.1% of all 32,277 papers that mention a test. That makes it 26 times as common in this research. Each bar counts the papers from 2021 to 2025 on autism spectrum disorder that mention the test, with its share of the 484 papers. A paper that mentions two tests counts under both.
The 15 tests these papers mention most
All 55 tests these papers mention
| Test | Papers | Share of the 484 papers on autism spectrum disorder | Share of all 32,277 papers that mention a test |
|---|---|---|---|
| Three-chamber sociability test | 131 | 27% | 1% |
| Self-grooming | 105 | 22% | 1% |
| Open field | 84 | 17% | 12% |
| Marble burying | 75 | 15% | 1% |
| Social interaction test | 71 | 15% | 1% |
| Elevated plus maze | 64 | 13% | 9% |
| Novel object recognition | 53 | 11% | 9% |
| Morris water maze | 49 | 10% | 17% |
| Prepulse inhibition and acoustic startle | 31 | 6% | 2% |
| Fear conditioning | 25 | 5% | 6% |
| Y-maze | 24 | 5% | 6% |
| Passive avoidance | 23 | 5% | 4% |
| Rotarod | 18 | 4% | 6% |
| Forced swim test | 13 | 3% | 9% |
| Operant conditioning | 12 | 2% | 3% |
| Light-dark box | 11 | 2% | 2% |
| Treadmill running | 10 | 2% | 6% |
| Negative geotaxis and climbing assays | 10 | 2% | 1% |
| T-maze | 9 | 2% | 1% |
| Hole-board | 8 | 2% | 1% |
| Barnes maze | 8 | 2% | 2% |
| Hot plate | 7 | 1% | 2% |
| Resident-intruder test | 7 | 1% | under 1% |
| Attentional set shifting | 6 | 1% | under 1% |
| Beam walking | 6 | 1% | 2% |
| Nest building | 6 | 1% | 1% |
| Sucrose preference test | 6 | 1% | 5% |
| Wheel running | 5 | 1% | 3% |
| Tube test for social dominance | 5 | 1% | under 1% |
| Five-choice serial reaction time task | 5 | 1% | under 1% |
| Conditioned place preference | 5 | 1% | 3% |
| Object location test | 4 | 1% | 1% |
| Elevated zero maze | 4 | 1% | under 1% |
| Touchscreen operant tasks | 3 | 1% | under 1% |
| Tail suspension test | 3 | 1% | 4% |
| Active avoidance (shuttle box) | 3 | 1% | 1% |
| Grip strength | 2 | under 1% | 4% |
| Radial arm maze | 2 | under 1% | 1% |
| Tail flick | 2 | under 1% | 2% |
| Social approach and avoidance | 1 | under 1% | under 1% |
| Writhing test | 1 | under 1% | 2% |
| Gait analysis | 1 | under 1% | 3% |
| Observational fear | 1 | under 1% | under 1% |
| Olfactory tests | 1 | under 1% | under 1% |
| Looming stimulus | 1 | under 1% | under 1% |
| Formalin test | 1 | under 1% | 2% |
| Social operant tasks | 1 | under 1% | under 1% |
| Adhesive removal test | 1 | under 1% | under 1% |
| Predator odor exposure | 1 | under 1% | 1% |
| Hargreaves plantar test | 1 | under 1% | 1% |
| Von Frey test | 1 | under 1% | 4% |
| Grid walking (foot fault) | 1 | under 1% | under 1% |
| Catalepsy bar test | 1 | under 1% | 1% |
| Plus maze for place and response learning | 1 | under 1% | under 1% |
| Novel tank test | 1 | under 1% | 1% |
Papers by year
Animal research papers on autism spectrum 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 | 0 |
| 2002 | 1 |
| 2003 | 0 |
| 2004 | 1 |
| 2005 | 2 |
| 2006 | 1 |
| 2007 | 7 |
| 2008 | 8 |
| 2009 | 11 |
| 2010 | 14 |
| 2011 | 20 |
| 2012 | 20 |
| 2013 | 27 |
| 2014 | 30 |
| 2015 | 43 |
| 2016 | 52 |
| 2017 | 48 |
| 2018 | 59 |
| 2019 | 67 |
| 2020 | 62 |
| 2021 | 85 |
| 2022 | 107 |
| 2023 | 97 |
| 2024 | 92 |
| 2025 | 103 |
| 2026 (part year) | 100 |
Which species the papers used
Each bar is a share of the 484 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 autism spectrum disorder.
A paper counts under autism spectrum disorder when its MeSH terms, the subject headings PubMed adds when it indexes a paper, include one of these.
- Autism Spectrum Disorder
- Autistic Disorder
- Asperger Syndrome
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
- 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 autism spectrum disorder research [Data set]. https://conductscience.com/data/behavioral-tests/models/autism
BibTeX
@misc{conductscience_autism_2026,
author = {{ConductScience}},
title = {Behavioral tests in autism spectrum disorder research},
year = {2026},
month = nov,
url = {https://conductscience.com/data/behavioral-tests/models/autism},
note = {Data set, released November 10, 2026},
}Shop apparatus by test
Our store sells apparatus for seven of the 10 tests these papers mention most, all but self-grooming, marble burying and prepulse inhibition and acoustic startle.
- Three-chamber sociability test
- Open field
- Social interaction test
- Elevated plus maze
- Novel object recognition
- Morris water maze
- Fear conditioning
