Research data ยท Motor function and endurance
Treadmill running
From 2021 to 2025, 2,091 animal research papers mentioned treadmill running in their title or abstract, ranking it sixth of the 90 tests we track.
That is 1.2 times the 1,734 papers of 2011 to 2015. Papers that mention any of the 90 tests grew to 1.2 times as many over the same span.
Papers by year
Animal research papers that mention treadmill running, 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 | 197 |
| 2002 | 202 |
| 2003 | 201 |
| 2004 | 206 |
| 2005 | 230 |
| 2006 | 255 |
| 2007 | 219 |
| 2008 | 222 |
| 2009 | 275 |
| 2010 | 307 |
| 2011 | 293 |
| 2012 | 318 |
| 2013 | 414 |
| 2014 | 352 |
| 2015 | 357 |
| 2016 | 380 |
| 2017 | 415 |
| 2018 | 397 |
| 2019 | 442 |
| 2020 | 449 |
| 2021 | 458 |
| 2022 | 404 |
| 2023 | 393 |
| 2024 | 361 |
| 2025 | 475 |
| 2026 (part year) | 444 |
Papers that mention treadmill running fell from 458 in 2021 to 361 in 2024, then rose to 475 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.
Rats led every year from 2001 to 2021, and mice every year since 2022.
Papers that mention treadmill running in mice and in rats, by year, 2001 to 2025
- Mouse
- Rat
Show the counts for each year and species
| Year | Mouse | Rat |
|---|---|---|
| 2001 | 22 | 93 |
| 2002 | 15 | 80 |
| 2003 | 25 | 105 |
| 2004 | 38 | 98 |
| 2005 | 37 | 100 |
| 2006 | 30 | 116 |
| 2007 | 42 | 116 |
| 2008 | 50 | 118 |
| 2009 | 72 | 133 |
| 2010 | 74 | 158 |
| 2011 | 82 | 169 |
| 2012 | 80 | 178 |
| 2013 | 102 | 259 |
| 2014 | 108 | 204 |
| 2015 | 117 | 202 |
| 2016 | 146 | 196 |
| 2017 | 147 | 222 |
| 2018 | 159 | 196 |
| 2019 | 175 | 214 |
| 2020 | 170 | 216 |
| 2021 | 194 | 207 |
| 2022 | 191 | 178 |
| 2023 | 186 | 167 |
| 2024 | 171 | 159 |
| 2025 | 259 | 177 |
Which species the papers used
Each bar is a share of the 2,091 papers from 2021 to 2025. A paper can use more than one species, so the shares can add to more than 100%.
Species
โOther animalsโ 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 1,600 of the 2,091 papers, so each bar is a share of those 1,600.
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 treadmill running and study that disease model, with its share of the 2,091 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
Tests mentioned alongside treadmill running
Each bar counts the papers from 2021 to 2025 that mention both tests, with its share of the 2,091 papers that mention treadmill running.
Papers from 2021 to 2025 that mention both tests
The most cited papers from 2021 to 2025
These papers from 2021 to 2025 mention treadmill running and have the most citations, as counted by NIH's iCite on November 5, 2026.
Circulation, 2022. 222 citations.
Physiol Rev, 2023. 176 citations.
Biomed Pharmacother, 2023. 164 citations.
Entorhinal cortex directs learning-related changes in CA1 representations.
Nature, 2022. 143 citations.
Redox Biol, 2024. 121 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 treadmill running only in its methods is missed, so the count runs low. The count includes 39 reviews. For 492 of the 2,091 papers, PubMed's indexing gave no species, so the species came from PubTator 3 finding one in the title or abstract.
This count includes papers that used a treadmill for exercise, not only as a test.
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 motor function and endurance tests
These motor function and endurance tests also have a page, with their papers from 2021 to 2025. Each test with 30 or more papers gets one.
- Rotarod 1,844
- Grip strength 1,354
- Gait analysis 821
- Beam walking 491
- Negative geotaxis and climbing assays 305
- Catalepsy bar test 244
- Wire hang and inverted grid 206
- Cylinder test 163
- Pole test 161
- Grid walking (foot fault) 155
- Rotational behavior (rotometer) 110
- Adhesive removal test 107
- Ladder rung walking 104
- Skilled reaching 95
- Corner test 59
How to cite
APA
ConductScience. (2026, November 10). Treadmill running in published research [Data set]. https://conductscience.com/data/behavioral-tests/treadmill
BibTeX
@misc{conductscience_treadmill_2026,
author = {{ConductScience}},
title = {Treadmill running in published research},
year = {2026},
month = nov,
url = {https://conductscience.com/data/behavioral-tests/treadmill},
note = {Data set, released November 10, 2026},
}Apparatus for treadmill running
Our store sells three products for treadmill running.
Shop the apparatusPapers that name our apparatus
We keep our own list of published papers whose text names our equipment. Those that mention treadmill running in the title or abstract are already in the counts above.
- 22 papers from 2021 to 2026 name our Rodent Treadmill. See the papers
