Research data ยท Animal model

Radiation exposure

From 2021 to 2025, 125 animal research papers mentioned radiation exposure and at least one behavioral test.

That is 1.4 times the 89 papers of 2011 to 2015. Between the same two periods, all the animal research papers that mention any of the 90 tests we count grew more slowly, to 1.2 times as many.

125 animal research papers from 2021 to 2025 mentioned radiation exposure and a test
1.4 times as many papers as in 2011 to 2015
25% of these papers mention the Morris water maze
39 of the 90 tests we track appear in these papers

The tests mentioned with radiation exposure

Each bar is one test, with how many of the 125 papers from 2021 to 2025 mention it, and what share that is. A paper that mentions two tests counts under both.

The 15 tests these papers mention most

31 papers 25%
22 papers 18%
16 papers 13%
12 papers 10%
11 papers 9%
7 papers 6%
4 papers 3%
All 39 tests these papers mention
Papers from 2021 to 2025 that mention radiation exposure and each test
TestPapersShare of the 125 papers
Morris water maze3125%
Novel object recognition2923%
Open field2218%
Elevated plus maze1613%
Attentional set shifting1210%
Forced swim test1210%
Y-maze119%
Passive avoidance86%
Fear conditioning76%
Rotarod76%
Three-chamber sociability test65%
Object location test54%
Tail suspension test43%
Touchscreen operant tasks43%
Wheel running43%
Light-dark box43%
Barnes maze43%
Negative geotaxis and climbing assays22%
Radial arm water maze22%
Cincinnati water maze22%
Beam walking22%
Treadmill running22%
Marble burying22%
Grip strength22%
Self-grooming11%
Five-choice serial reaction time task11%
T-maze11%
Prepulse inhibition and acoustic startle11%
Tube test for social dominance11%
Nest building11%
Step-down avoidance11%
Gait analysis11%
Adhesive removal test11%
Tail flick11%
Von Frey test11%
Radial arm maze11%
Operant conditioning11%
Cylinder test11%
Sucrose preference test11%

Tests named in 30 or more of these papers link to a page on that test with radiation exposure. To count the papers that mention two or more tests together, use the test battery tool.

Papers by year

Animal research papers that mention radiation exposure and 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
Papers by year
YearPapers
20017
20024
20035
20046
20057
200610
20078
200813
20096
201013
201112
201213
201321
201425
201518
201631
201718
201816
201917
202026
202122
202223
202323
202421
202536
2026 (part year)22

Disease models in papers that mention radiation exposure

Each bar is one disease model, with how many of the 125 papers from 2021 to 2025 are tagged with it, and what share that is. The model comes from the paper's MeSH terms, the subject headings the National Library of Medicine adds when it indexes a paper. A paper without MeSH terms gets its model from PubTator 3, NCBI's text-mining service, if PubTator 3 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

Which species the papers used

Each bar is a share of the 125 papers from 2021 to 2025. A paper can use more than one species, so the shares can add to more than 100%.

Species

Mouse
73 papers 58%
Rat
53 papers 42%
Other animals
2 papers 2%

โ€œOther animalsโ€ counts papers that use none of the species this chart names.

NIH funding

20 of the 125 papers (16%) had NIH funding. NCI, the National Cancer Institute, funded the most, 8 of them. A paper counts as NIH-funded when its PubMed record lists an NIH grant, or when NIH RePORTER links it to an NIH project.

NIH-funded papers by institute

NCINational Cancer Institute
8 papers 40%
NIANational Institute on Aging
6 papers 30%
NIGMSNational Institute of General Medical Sciences
5 papers 25%
NICHDEunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development
3 papers 15%
NIDA
3 papers 15%
NINDSNational Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke
3 papers 15%

Each share is of the NIH-funded papers. A paper with grants from two institutes counts under both.

The most cited papers from 2021 to 2025

These papers from 2021 to 2025 mention radiation exposure and a behavioral test and have the most citations, as counted by NIH's iCite on November 5, 2026. We show four of the five most cited papers and leave out one because of words in its title.

  1. Melatonin reduces radiation-induced ferroptosis in hippocampal neurons by activating the PKM2/NRF2/GPX4 signaling pathway.

    Prog Neuropsychopharmacol Biol Psychiatry, 2023. 44 citations.

  2. Treatment by low-dose brain radiation therapy improves memory performances without changes of the amyloid load in the TgF344-AD rat model.

    Neurobiol Aging, 2021. 28 citations.

  3. A Gelatin/Alginate Double Network Hydrogel Nerve Guidance Conduit Fabricated by a Chemical-Free Gamma Radiation for Peripheral Nerve Regeneration.

    Adv Healthc Mater, 2024. 25 citations.

  4. Galactic cosmic radiation exposure causes multifaceted neurocognitive impairments.

    Cell Mol Life Sci, 2023. 24 citations.

How we counted

A paper counts here when it is animal research and its title or abstract mentions radiation exposure and at least one of the 90 behavioral tests. A count is a number of papers, not of experiments, labs or animals. A paper that mentions radiation exposure only in its methods is missed, so the count runs low.

Many animal research papers that mention radiation study cancer or radiation injury to organs other than the brain, so we count radiation exposure only in papers that also mention a behavioral test.

A paper is animal research when its MeSH terms name an animal species. If they name none, NCBI's text-mining service PubTator 3 has to find one in the title or abstract.

The search terms for radiation exposure are in the download Animal models and brain techniques. The counts in the chart of tests are in Tests mentioned with each model or technique. The full method, with each source and its terms of use, is on our main page, Behavioral tests in published research.

More animal models

Each animal model with 100 or more papers from 2021 to 2025 that mention a test has a page. These are the others, each with that count.

How to cite

APA

ConductScience. (2026, November 13). Behavioral tests with radiation exposure [Data set]. https://conductscience.com/resources/data/animal-models/radiation

BibTeX

@misc{conductscience_radiation_2026,
  author = {{ConductScience}},
  title = {Behavioral tests with radiation exposure},
  year = {2026},
  month = nov,
  url = {https://conductscience.com/resources/data/animal-models/radiation},
  note = {Data set, released November 13, 2026},
}

Shop apparatus by test

Shop all behavioral apparatus