Research data · Animal model

Prenatal valproic acid

From 2021 to 2025, 149 animal research papers mentioned prenatal valproic acid and at least one behavioral test.

That is 3.9 times the 38 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.

149 animal research papers from 2021 to 2025 mentioned prenatal valproic acid and a test
3.9 times as many papers as in 2011 to 2015
28% of these papers mention the three-chamber sociability test
29% of the 507 animal research papers from 2021 to 2025 that mention prenatal valproic acid also mention a test

The tests mentioned with prenatal valproic acid

The three-chamber sociability test appears in 28% of these papers and in 1.1% of all 32,277 papers that mention a test. That makes it 27 times as common in this research. Each bar is one test, with how many of the 149 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

28 papers 19%
28 papers 19%
27 papers 18%
26 papers 17%
26 papers 17%
13 papers 9%
6 papers 4%
5 papers 3%
All 41 tests these papers mention
Papers from 2021 to 2025 that mention prenatal valproic acid and each test
TestPapersShare of the 149 papers
Three-chamber sociability test4228%
Social interaction test2919%
Elevated plus maze2819%
Open field2819%
Marble burying2718%
Self-grooming2617%
Morris water maze2617%
Novel object recognition2114%
Y-maze139%
Passive avoidance64%
Hot plate64%
Negative geotaxis and climbing assays64%
Attentional set shifting53%
Rotarod53%
Treadmill running43%
Prepulse inhibition and acoustic startle43%
Hole-board32%
Operant conditioning32%
Forced swim test32%
T-maze32%
Elevated zero maze21%
Beam walking21%
Tail flick21%
Barnes maze21%
Light-dark box21%
Grip strength11%
Social approach and avoidance11%
Observational fear11%
Olfactory tests11%
Conditioned place preference11%
Sucrose preference test11%
Tube test for social dominance11%
Radial arm maze11%
Resident-intruder test11%
Grid walking (foot fault)11%
Wheel running11%
Fear conditioning11%
Plus maze for place and response learning11%
Hargreaves plantar test11%
Von Frey test11%
Tail suspension test11%

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

Papers by year

Animal research papers that mention prenatal valproic acid 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
20011
20020
20030
20040
20051
20061
20071
20083
20091
20102
20113
20122
20139
201410
201514
201616
201710
201813
201916
202018
202114
202233
202325
202435
202542
2026 (part year)32

Disease models in papers that mention prenatal valproic acid

Each bar is one disease model, with how many of the 149 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

20 papers 13%
Fragile X syndrome
2 papers 1%
1 paper 1%

Which species the papers used

Each bar is a share of the 149 papers from 2021 to 2025. A paper can use more than one species, so the shares can add to more than 100%.

Species

Rat
100 papers 67%
Mouse
48 papers 32%
Nonhuman primate
1 paper 1%
Other animals
1 paper 1%

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

NIH funding

9 of the 149 papers (6%) had NIH funding. NIGMS, the National Institute of General Medical Sciences, funded the most, 4 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

NIGMSNational Institute of General Medical Sciences
4 papers 44%
NIDA
2 papers 22%
NINDSNational Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke
2 papers 22%
NIMHNational Institute of Mental Health
2 papers 22%
NIEHSNational Institute of Environmental Health Sciences
1 paper 11%
NIDCDNational Institute on Deafness and Other Communication Disorders
1 paper 11%

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 prenatal valproic acid and a behavioral test and have the most citations, as counted by NIH's iCite on November 5, 2026.

  1. Memantine/Aripiprazole Combination Alleviates Cognitive Dysfunction in Valproic Acid Rat Model of Autism: Hippocampal CREB/BDNF Signaling and Glutamate Homeostasis.

    Neurotherapeutics, 2023. 49 citations.

  2. Associations between dysbiosis gut microbiota and changes of neurotransmitters and short-chain fatty acids in valproic acid model rats.

    Front Physiol, 2023. 39 citations.

  3. Probiotics and prebiotics alleviate behavioral deficits, inflammatory response, and gut dysbiosis in prenatal VPA-induced rodent model of autism.

    Physiol Behav, 2022. 38 citations.

  4. Neuroprotective effect of the standardised extract of Bacopa monnieri (BacoMind) in valproic acid model of autism spectrum disorder in rats.

    J Ethnopharmacol, 2022. 34 citations.

  5. A CCR5 antagonist, maraviroc, alleviates neural circuit dysfunction and behavioral disorders induced by prenatal valproate exposure.

    J Neuroinflammation, 2022. 27 citations.

How we counted

A paper counts here when it is animal research and its title or abstract mentions prenatal valproic acid 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 prenatal valproic acid only in its methods is missed, so the count runs low.

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. Papers on animals other than mice, rats, zebrafish, flies and primates count only when they also mention a test. Many of them study people or use the same words for something else.

The search terms for prenatal valproic acid 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 prenatal valproic acid [Data set]. https://conductscience.com/resources/data/animal-models/valproic-acid-prenatal

BibTeX

@misc{conductscience_valproic_acid_prenatal_2026,
  author = {{ConductScience}},
  title = {Behavioral tests with prenatal valproic acid},
  year = {2026},
  month = nov,
  url = {https://conductscience.com/resources/data/animal-models/valproic-acid-prenatal},
  note = {Data set, released November 13, 2026},
}

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