Research data · Disease model
Parkinson disease
From 2021 to 2025, 918 animal research papers on Parkinson disease mentioned at least one behavioral test, most often the rotarod.
That is 1.7 times the 555 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 pole test appears in 11% of the papers on Parkinson disease and in 0.5% of all 32,277 papers that mention a test. That makes it 22 times as common in this research. Each bar counts the papers from 2021 to 2025 on Parkinson disease that mention the test, with its share of the 918 papers. A paper that mentions two tests counts under both.
The 15 tests these papers mention most
All 62 tests these papers mention
| Test | Papers | Share of the 918 papers on Parkinson disease | Share of all 32,277 papers that mention a test |
|---|---|---|---|
| Rotarod | 332 | 36% | 6% |
| Open field | 232 | 25% | 12% |
| Pole test | 101 | 11% | under 1% |
| Catalepsy bar test | 100 | 11% | 1% |
| Beam walking | 74 | 8% | 2% |
| Rotational behavior (rotometer) | 54 | 6% | under 1% |
| Forced swim test | 52 | 6% | 9% |
| Gait analysis | 52 | 6% | 3% |
| Novel object recognition | 51 | 6% | 9% |
| Cylinder test | 50 | 5% | 1% |
| Morris water maze | 50 | 5% | 17% |
| Grip strength | 48 | 5% | 4% |
| Treadmill running | 45 | 5% | 6% |
| Elevated plus maze | 40 | 4% | 9% |
| Y-maze | 40 | 4% | 6% |
| Sucrose preference test | 33 | 4% | 5% |
| Wire hang and inverted grid | 30 | 3% | 1% |
| Negative geotaxis and climbing assays | 24 | 3% | 1% |
| Tail suspension test | 19 | 2% | 4% |
| Passive avoidance | 16 | 2% | 4% |
| Von Frey test | 12 | 1% | 4% |
| Light-dark box | 12 | 1% | 2% |
| T-maze | 10 | 1% | 1% |
| Fear conditioning | 8 | 1% | 6% |
| Wheel running | 8 | 1% | 3% |
| Hole-board | 8 | 1% | 1% |
| Skilled reaching | 7 | 1% | under 1% |
| Operant conditioning | 7 | 1% | 3% |
| Object location test | 7 | 1% | 1% |
| Adhesive removal test | 6 | 1% | under 1% |
| Nest building | 5 | 1% | 1% |
| Novel tank test | 5 | 1% | 1% |
| Barnes maze | 5 | 1% | 2% |
| Active avoidance (shuttle box) | 5 | 1% | 1% |
| Novelty-suppressed feeding | 5 | 1% | 1% |
| Grid walking (foot fault) | 4 | under 1% | under 1% |
| Tail flick | 4 | under 1% | 2% |
| Olfactory tests | 4 | under 1% | under 1% |
| Radial arm maze | 3 | under 1% | 1% |
| Self-grooming | 3 | under 1% | 1% |
| Formalin test | 3 | under 1% | 2% |
| Step-down avoidance | 3 | under 1% | under 1% |
| Marble burying | 3 | under 1% | 1% |
| Splash test | 3 | under 1% | under 1% |
| Hargreaves plantar test | 2 | under 1% | 1% |
| Self-administration | 2 | under 1% | 4% |
| Ladder rung walking | 2 | under 1% | under 1% |
| Elevated zero maze | 2 | under 1% | under 1% |
| Three-chamber sociability test | 2 | under 1% | 1% |
| Cold plate | 2 | under 1% | under 1% |
| Prepulse inhibition and acoustic startle | 2 | under 1% | 2% |
| Attentional set shifting | 2 | under 1% | under 1% |
| Conditioned place preference | 2 | under 1% | 3% |
| Five-choice serial reaction time task | 2 | under 1% | under 1% |
| Writhing test | 1 | under 1% | 2% |
| Predator odor exposure | 1 | under 1% | 1% |
| Resident-intruder test | 1 | under 1% | under 1% |
| Touchscreen operant tasks | 1 | under 1% | under 1% |
| Three-choice serial reaction time task | 1 | under 1% | under 1% |
| Thermal gradient and temperature preference | 1 | under 1% | under 1% |
| Hot plate | 1 | under 1% | 2% |
| Real-time place preference | 1 | under 1% | under 1% |
Papers by year
Animal research papers on Parkinson 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 | 39 |
| 2002 | 41 |
| 2003 | 35 |
| 2004 | 50 |
| 2005 | 62 |
| 2006 | 60 |
| 2007 | 70 |
| 2008 | 63 |
| 2009 | 62 |
| 2010 | 80 |
| 2011 | 71 |
| 2012 | 125 |
| 2013 | 112 |
| 2014 | 111 |
| 2015 | 136 |
| 2016 | 122 |
| 2017 | 160 |
| 2018 | 168 |
| 2019 | 192 |
| 2020 | 149 |
| 2021 | 181 |
| 2022 | 183 |
| 2023 | 161 |
| 2024 | 181 |
| 2025 | 212 |
| 2026 (part year) | 168 |
Papers on Parkinson disease fell from 181 in 2021 to 161 in 2023, then rose to 212 in 2025. Papers that PubMed indexed under the MeSH heading Animals also fell and rose, from 200,221 in 2021 to 156,447 in 2023 and 235,479 in 2025. We take each paper's disease models from PubMed's indexing whenever PubMed has indexed the paper, so part of this dip may come from the indexing rather than from fewer studies.
Which species the papers used
Each bar is a share of the 918 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 Parkinson disease.
A paper counts under Parkinson disease when its MeSH terms, the subject headings PubMed adds when it indexes a paper, include one of these.
- Parkinson Disease
- Parkinsonian Disorders
- Parkinson Disease, Secondary
- MPTP Poisoning
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
- 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 Parkinson disease research [Data set]. https://conductscience.com/data/behavioral-tests/models/parkinsons-disease
BibTeX
@misc{conductscience_parkinsons_disease_2026,
author = {{ConductScience}},
title = {Behavioral tests in Parkinson disease research},
year = {2026},
month = nov,
url = {https://conductscience.com/data/behavioral-tests/models/parkinsons-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.
- Rotarod
- Open field
- Pole test
- Catalepsy bar test
- Beam walking
- Rotational behavior (rotometer)
- Forced swim test
- Gait analysis
- Novel object recognition
- Cylinder test
