Research data · Spatial learning and memory

Radial arm maze

Name: Radial arm maze in published research
Creator: ConductScience
Published: 2026-11-10

From 2021 to 2025, 225 animal research papers mentioned the radial arm maze in their title or abstract, ranking it 39th of the 90 tests we track.

That is 38% fewer than the 361 papers of 2011 to 2015. Papers that mention any of the 90 tests rose 22% over the same span. The 2021 to 2025 count may run low because of a dip in PubMed's indexing, explained under the year chart.

Shop the apparatus See all 90 tests

225 animal research papers from 2021 to 2025 mentioned the test

38% fewer papers than in 2011 to 2015

39th of the 90 tests by papers from 2021 to 2025

55% of these papers used rats and 40% used mice

Papers by year

Animal research papers that mention the radial arm maze, 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

Papers by year
Year	Papers
2001	84
2002	86
2003	86
2004	91
2005	90
2006	86
2007	87
2008	99
2009	81
2010	70
2011	62
2012	73
2013	83
2014	75
2015	68
2016	78
2017	67
2018	72
2019	65
2020	58
2021	46
2022	43
2023	53
2024	39
2025	44
2026 (part year)	38

Papers that mention the radial arm maze fell from 46 in 2021 to 39 in 2024, then rose to 44 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 species from PubMed's indexing whenever it names one, so part of this dip may come from the indexing rather than from fewer studies.

Papers that mention the radial arm maze in mice and in rats, by year, 2001 to 2025

Mouse
Rat

Rat Mouse

Show the counts for each year and species

Papers by year, mice and rats
Year	Mouse	Rat
2001	20	61
2002	13	66
2003	23	64
2004	20	70
2005	13	75
2006	24	61
2007	13	72
2008	20	76
2009	18	61
2010	16	51
2011	17	43
2012	23	52
2013	24	61
2014	17	54
2015	17	47
2016	18	60
2017	22	49
2018	30	38
2019	18	45
2020	22	36
2021	18	23
2022	14	24
2023	27	25
2024	11	28
2025	19	24

Which species the papers used

Each bar is a share of the 225 papers from 2021 to 2025. A paper can use more than one species, so the shares can add to more than 100%.

Species

Rat

124 55%

Mouse

89 40%

Other animals

17 8%

Zebrafish

1 under 1%

“Other animals” counts papers that use none of the other species in this chart.

Strains and genetic lines

Strain names come from the MeSH terms PubMed adds when it indexes a paper. PubMed has indexed 173 of the 225 papers, so each bar is a share of those 173.

Wistar rats

38 22%

C57BL mice

21 12%

Sprague-Dawley rats

17 10%

Transgenic mice

9 5%

Knockout mice

7 4%

Long-Evans rats

7 4%

ICR mice

3 2%

Wistar Kyoto rats

1 1%

A paper indexed under two of these headings, such as knockout mice and a strain, counts under both.

Disease models these papers study

Each bar counts the papers from 2021 to 2025 that mention the radial arm maze and study that disease model, with its share of the 225 papers. The model comes from a paper's MeSH terms. For a paper PubMed has not indexed, it comes from PubTator 3, NCBI's text-mining service, when that service finds the disease in the title or abstract. A paper can count under more than one model.

Papers from 2021 to 2025 by disease model

Cognitive impairment and dementia

94 42%

Alzheimer disease

47 21%

Aging

15 7%

Stroke and brain ischemia

12 5%

Anxiety

11 5%

Epilepsy and seizures

10 4%

Brain injury

8 4%

Depression

6 3%

Diabetes

6 3%

Substance use disorders

6 3%

Tests mentioned alongside the radial arm maze

Each bar counts the papers from 2021 to 2025 that mention both tests, with its share of the 225 papers that mention the radial arm maze.

Papers from 2021 to 2025 that mention both tests

Novel object recognition

39 17%

34 15%

26 12%

21 9%

20 9%

20 9%

9 4%

7 3%

The most cited papers from 2021 to 2025

These papers from 2021 to 2025 mention the radial arm maze and have the most citations, as counted by NIH's iCite on November 5, 2026.

A review of behavioral methods for the evaluation of cognitive performance in animal models: Current techniques and links to human cognition.
Physiol Behav, 2022. 110 citations.
What animal models can tell us about long-term cognitive dysfunction following sepsis: A systematic review.
Neurosci Biobehav Rev, 2021. 75 citations.
Anti-aging effect of phlorizin on D-galactose-induced aging in mice through antioxidant and anti-inflammatory activity, prevention of apoptosis, and regulation of the gut microbiota.
Exp Gerontol, 2022. 59 citations.
Taxifolin retards the D-galactose-induced aging process through inhibiting Nrf2-mediated oxidative stress and regulating the gut microbiota in mice.
Food Funct, 2021. 55 citations.
Aronia melanocarpa polysaccharide ameliorates inflammation and aging in mice by modulating the AMPK/SIRT1/NF-κB signaling pathway and gut microbiota.
Sci Rep, 2021. 54 citations.

How we counted

A count is the number of animal research papers whose title or abstract mentions one of the test's search terms. It is not a count of experiments, labs or animals.

A paper that mentions the radial arm maze only in its methods is missed, so the count runs low. The count includes 5 reviews. For 52 of the 225 papers, PubMed's indexing gave no species, so the species came from PubTator 3 finding one in the title or abstract.

The test's search terms are in the test list download. The full method, with each source and its terms of use, is on our main page, Behavioral tests in published research.

More spatial learning and memory tests

These spatial learning and memory tests also have a page, with their papers from 2021 to 2025. Each test with 30 or more papers gets one.

How to cite

APA

ConductScience. (2026, November 10). Radial arm maze in published research [Data set]. https://conductscience.com/data/behavioral-tests/radial-arm-maze

BibTeX

@misc{conductscience_radial_arm_maze_2026,
  author = {{ConductScience}},
  title = {Radial arm maze in published research},
  year = {2026},
  month = nov,
  url = {https://conductscience.com/data/behavioral-tests/radial-arm-maze},
  note = {Data set, released November 10, 2026},
}

Apparatus for the radial arm maze

Our store sells two products for the radial arm maze.

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Papers that name our apparatus

We keep our own list of published papers whose text names our equipment. Those that mention the radial arm maze in the title or abstract are already in the counts above.

5 papers from 2020 to 2025 name our Radial Arm Maze. See the papers