Research data · Pain and nociception

Von Frey test

Name: Von Frey test in published research
Creator: ConductScience
Published: 2026-11-10

From 2021 to 2025, 1,282 animal research papers mentioned the von Frey test in their title or abstract, ranking it 14th of the 90 tests we track.

That is 1.6 times the 780 papers of 2011 to 2015. Papers that mention any of the 90 tests grew to 1.2 times as many over the same span.

Shop the apparatus See all 90 tests

1,282 animal research papers from 2021 to 2025 mentioned the test

1.6 times as many papers as in 2011 to 2015

14th of the 90 tests by papers from 2021 to 2025

53% of these papers used rats and 49% used mice

Papers by year

Animal research papers that mention the von Frey 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

Papers by year
Year	Papers
2001	44
2002	54
2003	48
2004	64
2005	71
2006	78
2007	71
2008	87
2009	77
2010	105
2011	130
2012	134
2013	157
2014	181
2015	178
2016	194
2017	200
2018	214
2019	209
2020	280
2021	243
2022	247
2023	217
2024	260
2025	315
2026 (part year)	277

Papers that mention the von Frey test fell from 243 in 2021 to 217 in 2023, then rose to 315 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 von Frey test in mice and in rats, by year, 2001 to 2025

Mouse
Rat

Mouse Rat

Show the counts for each year and species

Papers by year, mice and rats
Year	Mouse	Rat
2001	6	34
2002	8	46
2003	9	38
2004	10	53
2005	14	54
2006	18	60
2007	22	53
2008	32	53
2009	33	40
2010	28	76
2011	32	95
2012	28	104
2013	48	111
2014	54	127
2015	65	113
2016	68	127
2017	76	122
2018	83	134
2019	88	132
2020	112	170
2021	106	136
2022	110	140
2023	112	113
2024	127	139
2025	172	150

Which species the papers used

Each bar is a share of the 1,282 papers from 2021 to 2025. A paper can use more than one species, so the shares can add to more than 100%.

Species

Rat

678 53%

Mouse

627 49%

Other animals

35 3%

Zebrafish

1 under 1%

Fruit fly

1 under 1%

Nonhuman primate

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 978 of the 1,282 papers, so each bar is a share of those 978.

Sprague-Dawley rats

294 30%

C57BL mice

197 20%

Wistar rats

120 12%

Knockout mice

33 3%

Transgenic mice

22 2%

BALB/c mice

14 1%

ICR mice

13 1%

Other inbred mice

3 under 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 von Frey test and study that disease model, with its share of the 1,282 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

988 77%

63 5%

63 5%

48 4%

41 3%

Cognitive impairment and dementia

21 2%

Psychological stress

14 1%

Obesity and high-fat diet

13 1%

Substance use disorders

13 1%

Brain injury

12 1%

Tests mentioned alongside the von Frey test

Each bar counts the papers from 2021 to 2025 that mention both tests, with its share of the 1,282 papers that mention the von Frey test.

Papers from 2021 to 2025 that mention both tests

Hot plate

150 12%

Hargreaves plantar test

112 9%

71 6%

61 5%

54 4%

53 4%

49 4%

44 3%

The most cited papers from 2021 to 2025

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

MicroRNA-155-5p promotes neuroinflammation and central sensitization via inhibiting SIRT1 in a nitroglycerin-induced chronic migraine mouse model.
J Neuroinflammation, 2021. 120 citations.
Stellate ganglion block ameliorated central post-stroke pain with comorbid anxiety and depression through inhibiting HIF-1α/NLRP3 signaling following thalamic hemorrhagic stroke.
J Neuroinflammation, 2023. 115 citations.
Divanillyl sulfone suppresses NLRP3 inflammasome activation via inducing mitophagy to ameliorate chronic neuropathic pain in mice.
J Neuroinflammation, 2021. 89 citations.
P2X7R-mediated autophagic impairment contributes to central sensitization in a chronic migraine model with recurrent nitroglycerin stimulation in mice.
J Neuroinflammation, 2021. 82 citations.
Comparison of joint degeneration and pain in male and female mice in DMM model of osteoarthritis.
Osteoarthritis Cartilage, 2021. 79 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 von Frey test only in its methods is missed, so the count runs low. The count includes 7 reviews. For 305 of the 1,282 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 pain and nociception tests

These pain and nociception 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). Von Frey test in published research [Data set]. https://conductscience.com/data/behavioral-tests/von-frey

BibTeX

@misc{conductscience_von_frey_2026,
  author = {{ConductScience}},
  title = {Von Frey test in published research},
  year = {2026},
  month = nov,
  url = {https://conductscience.com/data/behavioral-tests/von-frey},
  note = {Data set, released November 10, 2026},
}

Apparatus for the von Frey test

Our store sells two products for the von Frey test.

Shop the apparatus

Papers that name our apparatus

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

1 paper from 2024 names our Electric Von Frey. See the papers