Research data · Disease model and test
Morris water maze in aging research
From 2021 to 2025, 182 animal research papers on aging mentioned the Morris water maze in their title or abstract.
That is 34% fewer than the 277 papers of 2011 to 2015. Between the same two periods, the papers on aging that mention any of the 90 tests we count fell 21%. The 2021 to 2025 count may run low because of a dip in PubMed's indexing, explained under the year chart.
Papers by year
Animal research papers on aging that mention the Morris water 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
| Year | Papers |
|---|---|
| 2001 | 27 |
| 2002 | 40 |
| 2003 | 43 |
| 2004 | 34 |
| 2005 | 39 |
| 2006 | 44 |
| 2007 | 48 |
| 2008 | 41 |
| 2009 | 59 |
| 2010 | 47 |
| 2011 | 41 |
| 2012 | 55 |
| 2013 | 63 |
| 2014 | 56 |
| 2015 | 62 |
| 2016 | 53 |
| 2017 | 51 |
| 2018 | 59 |
| 2019 | 48 |
| 2020 | 34 |
| 2021 | 36 |
| 2022 | 21 |
| 2023 | 16 |
| 2024 | 52 |
| 2025 | 57 |
| 2026 (part year) | 56 |
Papers on aging that mention the Morris water maze fell from 36 in 2021 to 16 in 2023, then rose to 57 in 2025. Part of this dip may come from PubMed's indexing rather than from fewer studies. Where PubMed has indexed a paper, we take its disease models from that indexing. Otherwise PubTator 3, NCBI's text-mining service, has to find the disease in the title or abstract, or the paper is not counted here. Papers that PubMed indexed under the subject heading Animals also fell and rose, from 200,221 in 2021 to 156,447 in 2023 and 235,479 in 2025.
Which species the papers used
Each bar is a share of the 182 papers from 2021 to 2025. A paper can use more than one species, so the shares can add to more than 100%.
Species
Tests mentioned alongside the Morris water maze
Each bar is one test, with how many of the 182 papers also mention it, and what share that is. Of these papers, 91 (50%) mention no other test.
The 12 tests these papers mention most
Which papers count
A paper counts here when it is animal research, mentions the Morris water maze in its title or abstract, and studies aging.
We tell whether a paper studies aging from its MeSH terms, the subject headings the National Library of Medicine adds when it indexes a paper. For a paper without MeSH terms, PubTator 3, NCBI's text-mining service, has to find the disease in the title or abstract. A paper can count under more than one disease model. A paper that mentions the test only in its methods is missed, so the count runs low.
The page on aging research names the subject headings we count as aging. Download the test list for the search terms we used for the Morris water maze, or the paper list for the PubMed ID of every paper behind these counts. Our main page, Behavioral tests in published research, has the full method and each source's terms of use.
More tests and disease models
Every pairing of a disease model and a test with 30 or more papers from 2021 to 2025 has a page like this one.
Papers on aging that mention other tests
Papers on other disease models that mention the Morris water maze
- Cognitive impairment and dementia 2,660 papers
- Alzheimer disease 1,456 papers
- Stroke and brain ischemia 405 papers
- Brain injury 319 papers
- Diabetes 269 papers
- Anxiety 229 papers
- Depression 181 papers
- Epilepsy and seizures 131 papers
- Obesity and high-fat diet 122 papers
- Sleep loss and sleep disorders 111 papers
- Psychological stress 93 papers
- Parkinson disease 50 papers
- Autism spectrum disorder 49 papers
- Pain conditions 45 papers
- Schizophrenia and psychosis 40 papers
- Substance use disorders 36 papers
- Multiple sclerosis and demyelination 34 papers
The page on the Morris water maze counts all the papers that mention it, whatever they study. The page on aging research ranks the tests by their papers on aging.
How to cite
APA
ConductScience. (2026, November 10). Morris water maze in aging research [Data set]. https://conductscience.com/resources/data/behavioral-tests/models/aging/morris-water-maze
BibTeX
@misc{conductscience_aging_morris_water_maze_2026,
author = {{ConductScience}},
title = {Morris water maze in aging research},
year = {2026},
month = nov,
url = {https://conductscience.com/resources/data/behavioral-tests/models/aging/morris-water-maze},
note = {Data set, released November 10, 2026},
}Morris water maze apparatus in our store
In the test battery tool, pick every test your study will run and add the apparatus for all of them to one quote.
