Research data · Disease model
Brain injury
From 2021 to 2025, 841 animal research papers on brain injury mentioned at least one behavioral test, most often the Morris water maze.
That is 1.6 times the 513 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
Beam walking appears in 12% of the papers on brain injury and in 1.5% of all 32,277 papers that mention a test. That makes it 7.7 times as common in this research. Each bar counts the papers from 2021 to 2025 on brain injury that mention the test, with its share of the 841 papers. A paper that mentions two tests counts under both.
The 15 tests these papers mention most
All 61 tests these papers mention
| Test | Papers | Share of the 841 papers on brain injury | Share of all 32,277 papers that mention a test |
|---|---|---|---|
| Morris water maze | 319 | 38% | 17% |
| Rotarod | 151 | 18% | 6% |
| Novel object recognition | 116 | 14% | 9% |
| Open field | 107 | 13% | 12% |
| Beam walking | 99 | 12% | 2% |
| Elevated plus maze | 69 | 8% | 9% |
| Y-maze | 57 | 7% | 6% |
| Forced swim test | 48 | 6% | 9% |
| Barnes maze | 41 | 5% | 2% |
| Fear conditioning | 39 | 5% | 6% |
| Grip strength | 27 | 3% | 4% |
| Grid walking (foot fault) | 25 | 3% | under 1% |
| Tail suspension test | 22 | 3% | 4% |
| Gait analysis | 22 | 3% | 3% |
| Sucrose preference test | 22 | 3% | 5% |
| Treadmill running | 21 | 2% | 6% |
| Cylinder test | 17 | 2% | 1% |
| Passive avoidance | 17 | 2% | 4% |
| Adhesive removal test | 15 | 2% | under 1% |
| Wheel running | 13 | 2% | 3% |
| Light-dark box | 13 | 2% | 2% |
| Von Frey test | 12 | 1% | 4% |
| Elevated zero maze | 11 | 1% | under 1% |
| Corner test | 11 | 1% | under 1% |
| Object location test | 10 | 1% | 1% |
| T-maze | 9 | 1% | 1% |
| Radial arm maze | 8 | 1% | 1% |
| Social interaction test | 8 | 1% | 1% |
| Nest building | 8 | 1% | 1% |
| Wire hang and inverted grid | 8 | 1% | 1% |
| Prepulse inhibition and acoustic startle | 8 | 1% | 2% |
| Three-chamber sociability test | 6 | 1% | 1% |
| Negative geotaxis and climbing assays | 6 | 1% | 1% |
| Ladder rung walking | 6 | 1% | under 1% |
| Five-choice serial reaction time task | 4 | under 1% | under 1% |
| Active avoidance (shuttle box) | 4 | under 1% | 1% |
| Step-down avoidance | 4 | under 1% | under 1% |
| Marble burying | 4 | under 1% | 1% |
| Active place avoidance | 4 | under 1% | under 1% |
| Self-administration | 3 | under 1% | 4% |
| Attentional set shifting | 3 | under 1% | under 1% |
| Skilled reaching | 3 | under 1% | under 1% |
| Tail flick | 3 | under 1% | 2% |
| Novelty-suppressed feeding | 3 | under 1% | 1% |
| Hole-board | 3 | under 1% | 1% |
| Pole test | 3 | under 1% | under 1% |
| Learned helplessness | 2 | under 1% | under 1% |
| Radial arm water maze | 2 | under 1% | under 1% |
| Rotational behavior (rotometer) | 2 | under 1% | under 1% |
| Touchscreen operant tasks | 2 | under 1% | under 1% |
| Hot plate | 2 | under 1% | 2% |
| Splash test | 2 | under 1% | under 1% |
| Novel tank test | 2 | under 1% | 1% |
| Three-choice serial reaction time task | 2 | under 1% | under 1% |
| Self-grooming | 2 | under 1% | 1% |
| Formalin test | 1 | under 1% | 2% |
| Writhing test | 1 | under 1% | 2% |
| Operant conditioning | 1 | under 1% | 3% |
| Conditioned place preference | 1 | under 1% | 3% |
| Elevated T-maze | 1 | under 1% | under 1% |
| Looming stimulus | 1 | under 1% | under 1% |
Papers by year
Animal research papers on brain injury 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 | 36 |
| 2002 | 22 |
| 2003 | 26 |
| 2004 | 30 |
| 2005 | 46 |
| 2006 | 55 |
| 2007 | 53 |
| 2008 | 52 |
| 2009 | 50 |
| 2010 | 59 |
| 2011 | 81 |
| 2012 | 88 |
| 2013 | 125 |
| 2014 | 112 |
| 2015 | 107 |
| 2016 | 131 |
| 2017 | 142 |
| 2018 | 146 |
| 2019 | 158 |
| 2020 | 160 |
| 2021 | 168 |
| 2022 | 175 |
| 2023 | 169 |
| 2024 | 152 |
| 2025 | 177 |
| 2026 (part year) | 170 |
Which species the papers used
Each bar is a share of the 841 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 brain injury.
A paper counts under brain injury when its MeSH terms, the subject headings PubMed adds when it indexes a paper, include one of these.
- Brain Injuries, Traumatic
- Brain Injuries
- Brain Concussion
- Craniocerebral Trauma
- Diffuse Axonal Injury
- Brain Contusion
- Post-Concussion 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
- 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 brain injury research [Data set]. https://conductscience.com/data/behavioral-tests/models/brain-injury
BibTeX
@misc{conductscience_brain_injury_2026,
author = {{ConductScience}},
title = {Behavioral tests in brain injury research},
year = {2026},
month = nov,
url = {https://conductscience.com/data/behavioral-tests/models/brain-injury},
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
- Rotarod
- Novel object recognition
- Open field
- Beam walking
- Elevated plus maze
- Y-maze
- Forced swim test
- Barnes maze
- Fear conditioning
