Research data · Disease model and test
Light-dark box in cognitive impairment and dementia research
From 2021 to 2025, 37 animal research papers on cognitive impairment and dementia mentioned the light-dark box in their title or abstract.
That is 1.7 times the 22 papers of 2011 to 2015. Between the same two periods, the papers on cognitive impairment and dementia that mention any of the 90 tests we count grew about as fast, to 1.7 times as many.
Papers by year
Animal research papers on cognitive impairment and dementia that mention the light-dark box, 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 | 0 |
| 2003 | 1 |
| 2004 | 0 |
| 2005 | 0 |
| 2006 | 0 |
| 2007 | 3 |
| 2008 | 1 |
| 2009 | 1 |
| 2010 | 1 |
| 2011 | 6 |
| 2012 | 2 |
| 2013 | 0 |
| 2014 | 6 |
| 2015 | 8 |
| 2016 | 4 |
| 2017 | 6 |
| 2018 | 8 |
| 2019 | 12 |
| 2020 | 8 |
| 2021 | 9 |
| 2022 | 5 |
| 2023 | 6 |
| 2024 | 5 |
| 2025 | 12 |
| 2026 (part year) | 6 |
Papers on cognitive impairment and dementia that mention the light-dark box fell from 9 in 2021 to 5 in 2022, then rose to 12 in 2025. Part of this dip may come from PubMed's indexing rather than from fewer studies. Where PubMed has indexed a paper, we take its disease models from that indexing. Otherwise PubTator 3, NCBI's text-mining service, has to find the disease in the title or abstract, or the paper is not counted here. Papers that PubMed indexed under the subject heading Animals also fell and rose, from 200,221 in 2021 to 156,447 in 2023 and 235,479 in 2025.
Which species the papers used
Each bar is a share of the 37 papers from 2021 to 2025. A paper can use more than one species, so the shares can add to more than 100%.
Species
Tests mentioned alongside the light-dark box
Each bar is one test, with how many of the 37 papers also mention it, and what share that is. Of these papers, 2 (5%) mention no other test.
The 12 tests these papers mention most
Which papers count
A paper counts here when it is animal research, mentions the light-dark box in its title or abstract, and studies cognitive impairment and dementia.
We tell whether a paper studies cognitive impairment and dementia from its MeSH terms, the subject headings the National Library of Medicine adds when it indexes a paper. For a paper without MeSH terms, PubTator 3, NCBI's text-mining service, has to find the disease in the title or abstract. A paper can count under more than one disease model. A paper that mentions the test only in its methods is missed, so the count runs low.
The page on cognitive impairment and dementia research names the subject headings we count as cognitive impairment and dementia. Download the test list for the search terms we used for the light-dark box, or the paper list for the PubMed ID of every paper behind these counts. Our main page, Behavioral tests in published research, has the full method and each source's terms of use.
More tests and disease models
Every pairing of a disease model and a test with 30 or more papers from 2021 to 2025 has a page like this one.
Papers on cognitive impairment and dementia that mention other tests
- Morris water maze 2,660 papers
- Novel object recognition 1,400 papers
- Y-maze 961 papers
- Passive avoidance 557 papers
- Open field 493 papers
- Elevated plus maze 394 papers
- Fear conditioning 357 papers
- Barnes maze 232 papers
- Forced swim test 171 papers
- Object location test 141 papers
- T-maze 140 papers
- Tail suspension test 100 papers
- Treadmill running 95 papers
- Radial arm maze 94 papers
- Sucrose preference test 89 papers
- Rotarod 86 papers
- Step-down avoidance 54 papers
- Grip strength 52 papers
- Prepulse inhibition and acoustic startle 49 papers
- Active avoidance (shuttle box) 46 papers
- Nest building 41 papers
- Three-chamber sociability test 39 papers
- Wheel running 37 papers
- Novel tank test 32 papers
Papers on other disease models that mention the light-dark box
The page on the light-dark box counts all the papers that mention it, whatever they study. The page on cognitive impairment and dementia research ranks the tests by their papers on cognitive impairment and dementia.
How to cite
APA
ConductScience. (2026, November 10). Light-dark box in cognitive impairment and dementia research [Data set]. https://conductscience.com/data/behavioral-tests/models/cognitive-impairment/light-dark-box
BibTeX
@misc{conductscience_cognitive_impairment_light_dark_box_2026,
author = {{ConductScience}},
title = {Light-dark box in cognitive impairment and dementia research},
year = {2026},
month = nov,
url = {https://conductscience.com/data/behavioral-tests/models/cognitive-impairment/light-dark-box},
note = {Data set, released November 10, 2026},
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