Research data · Disease model
Obesity and high-fat diet
From 2021 to 2025, 761 animal research papers on obesity and high-fat diet mentioned at least one behavioral test, most often treadmill running.
That is 2.1 times the 370 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
Wheel running appears in 12% of the papers on obesity and high-fat diet and in 3.1% of all 32,277 papers that mention a test. That makes it 4.0 times as common in this research. Each bar counts the papers from 2021 to 2025 on obesity and high-fat diet that mention the test, with its share of the 761 papers. A paper that mentions two tests counts under both.
The 15 tests these papers mention most
All 59 tests these papers mention
| Test | Papers | Share of the 761 papers on obesity and high-fat diet | Share of all 32,277 papers that mention a test |
|---|---|---|---|
| Treadmill running | 160 | 21% | 6% |
| Morris water maze | 122 | 16% | 17% |
| Wheel running | 93 | 12% | 3% |
| Novel object recognition | 90 | 12% | 9% |
| Elevated plus maze | 75 | 10% | 9% |
| Open field | 75 | 10% | 12% |
| Grip strength | 71 | 9% | 4% |
| Y-maze | 56 | 7% | 6% |
| Forced swim test | 40 | 5% | 9% |
| Sucrose preference test | 36 | 5% | 5% |
| Passive avoidance | 19 | 2% | 4% |
| Tail suspension test | 19 | 2% | 4% |
| Object location test | 18 | 2% | 1% |
| Rotarod | 17 | 2% | 6% |
| Fear conditioning | 17 | 2% | 6% |
| Operant conditioning | 13 | 2% | 3% |
| T-maze | 13 | 2% | 1% |
| Von Frey test | 13 | 2% | 4% |
| Self-administration | 12 | 2% | 4% |
| Barnes maze | 11 | 1% | 2% |
| Light-dark box | 11 | 1% | 2% |
| Marble burying | 10 | 1% | 1% |
| Negative geotaxis and climbing assays | 9 | 1% | 1% |
| Nest building | 8 | 1% | 1% |
| Social interaction test | 8 | 1% | 1% |
| Conditioned place preference | 7 | 1% | 3% |
| Elevated zero maze | 6 | 1% | under 1% |
| Radial arm maze | 5 | 1% | 1% |
| Self-grooming | 4 | 1% | 1% |
| Novel tank test | 4 | 1% | 1% |
| Three-chamber sociability test | 4 | 1% | 1% |
| Gait analysis | 4 | 1% | 3% |
| Resident-intruder test | 3 | under 1% | under 1% |
| Splash test | 3 | under 1% | under 1% |
| Novelty-suppressed feeding | 3 | under 1% | 1% |
| Wire hang and inverted grid | 3 | under 1% | 1% |
| Hargreaves plantar test | 3 | under 1% | 1% |
| Step-down avoidance | 2 | under 1% | under 1% |
| Prepulse inhibition and acoustic startle | 2 | under 1% | 2% |
| Olfactory tests | 2 | under 1% | under 1% |
| Active avoidance (shuttle box) | 2 | under 1% | 1% |
| Writhing test | 1 | under 1% | 2% |
| Touchscreen operant tasks | 1 | under 1% | under 1% |
| Radial arm water maze | 1 | under 1% | under 1% |
| Formalin test | 1 | under 1% | 2% |
| Hebb-Williams maze | 1 | under 1% | under 1% |
| Elevated T-maze | 1 | under 1% | under 1% |
| Hot plate | 1 | under 1% | 2% |
| Predator odor exposure | 1 | under 1% | 1% |
| Hole-board | 1 | under 1% | 1% |
| Pole test | 1 | under 1% | under 1% |
| Beam walking | 1 | under 1% | 2% |
| Five-choice serial reaction time task | 1 | under 1% | under 1% |
| Real-time place preference | 1 | under 1% | under 1% |
| Tube test for social dominance | 1 | under 1% | under 1% |
| Thermal gradient and temperature preference | 1 | under 1% | under 1% |
| Grid walking (foot fault) | 1 | under 1% | under 1% |
| Corner test | 1 | under 1% | under 1% |
| Acetone test | 1 | under 1% | under 1% |
Papers by year
Animal research papers on obesity and high-fat diet 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 | 3 |
| 2002 | 5 |
| 2003 | 8 |
| 2004 | 8 |
| 2005 | 9 |
| 2006 | 10 |
| 2007 | 10 |
| 2008 | 24 |
| 2009 | 20 |
| 2010 | 36 |
| 2011 | 42 |
| 2012 | 62 |
| 2013 | 74 |
| 2014 | 76 |
| 2015 | 116 |
| 2016 | 113 |
| 2017 | 135 |
| 2018 | 129 |
| 2019 | 142 |
| 2020 | 146 |
| 2021 | 134 |
| 2022 | 152 |
| 2023 | 140 |
| 2024 | 153 |
| 2025 | 182 |
| 2026 (part year) | 165 |
Which species the papers used
Each bar is a share of the 761 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 obesity and high-fat diet.
A paper counts under obesity and high-fat diet when its MeSH terms, the subject headings PubMed adds when it indexes a paper, include one of these.
- Obesity, with the headings under it
- Pediatric Obesity
- Diet, High-Fat
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
- 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 obesity and high-fat diet research [Data set]. https://conductscience.com/data/behavioral-tests/models/obesity
BibTeX
@misc{conductscience_obesity_2026,
author = {{ConductScience}},
title = {Behavioral tests in obesity and high-fat diet research},
year = {2026},
month = nov,
url = {https://conductscience.com/data/behavioral-tests/models/obesity},
note = {Data set, released November 10, 2026},
}Shop apparatus by test
Our store sells apparatus for all the 10 tests these papers mention most.
- Treadmill running
- Morris water maze
- Wheel running
- Novel object recognition
- Elevated plus maze
- Open field
- Grip strength
- Y-maze
- Forced swim test
- Sucrose preference test
