Research data · Disease model
Anxiety
From 2021 to 2025, 3,041 animal research papers on anxiety mentioned at least one behavioral test, most often the elevated plus maze.
That is 1.3 times the 2,358 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.
The tests these papers mention
The elevated plus maze appears in 51% of the papers on anxiety and in 8.9% of all 32,277 papers that mention a test. That makes it 5.7 times as common in this research. Each bar is one test, with how many of the 3,041 papers from 2021 to 2025 on anxiety mention it, and what share that is. A paper that mentions two tests counts under both.
The 15 tests these papers mention most
All 80 tests these papers mention
| Test | Papers | Share of the 3,041 papers on anxiety | Share of all 32,277 papers that mention a test |
|---|---|---|---|
| Elevated plus maze | 1,543 | 51% | 9% |
| Open field | 982 | 32% | 12% |
| Forced swim test | 582 | 19% | 9% |
| Light-dark box | 374 | 12% | 2% |
| Novel object recognition | 286 | 9% | 9% |
| Fear conditioning | 268 | 9% | 6% |
| Tail suspension test | 265 | 9% | 4% |
| Sucrose preference test | 256 | 8% | 5% |
| Morris water maze | 229 | 8% | 17% |
| Y-maze | 171 | 6% | 6% |
| Marble burying | 120 | 4% | 1% |
| Novel tank test | 106 | 3% | 1% |
| Novelty-suppressed feeding | 94 | 3% | 1% |
| Passive avoidance | 90 | 3% | 4% |
| Social interaction test | 87 | 3% | 1% |
| Rotarod | 85 | 3% | 6% |
| Hole-board | 83 | 3% | 1% |
| Prepulse inhibition and acoustic startle | 81 | 3% | 2% |
| Elevated zero maze | 76 | 2% | under 1% |
| Conditioned place preference | 65 | 2% | 3% |
| Von Frey test | 63 | 2% | 4% |
| Wheel running | 60 | 2% | 3% |
| Three-chamber sociability test | 53 | 2% | 1% |
| Self-grooming | 52 | 2% | 1% |
| Treadmill running | 51 | 2% | 6% |
| Barnes maze | 49 | 2% | 2% |
| Hot plate | 45 | 1% | 2% |
| Self-administration | 43 | 1% | 4% |
| Predator odor exposure | 40 | 1% | 1% |
| Splash test | 39 | 1% | under 1% |
| T-maze | 29 | 1% | 1% |
| Operant conditioning | 28 | 1% | 3% |
| Grip strength | 27 | 1% | 4% |
| Nest building | 26 | 1% | 1% |
| Active avoidance (shuttle box) | 21 | 1% | 1% |
| Resident-intruder test | 18 | 1% | under 1% |
| Object location test | 17 | 1% | 1% |
| Elevated T-maze | 16 | 1% | under 1% |
| Beam walking | 15 | under 1% | 2% |
| Learned helplessness | 14 | under 1% | under 1% |
| Tail flick | 14 | under 1% | 2% |
| Radial arm maze | 11 | under 1% | 1% |
| Wire hang and inverted grid | 10 | under 1% | 1% |
| Social approach and avoidance | 10 | under 1% | under 1% |
| Catalepsy bar test | 10 | under 1% | 1% |
| Looming stimulus | 8 | under 1% | under 1% |
| Tube test for social dominance | 8 | under 1% | under 1% |
| Hargreaves plantar test | 8 | under 1% | 1% |
| Step-down avoidance | 7 | under 1% | under 1% |
| Formalin test | 7 | under 1% | 2% |
| Touchscreen operant tasks | 6 | under 1% | under 1% |
| Rotational behavior (rotometer) | 6 | under 1% | under 1% |
| Writhing test | 6 | under 1% | 2% |
| Vogel conflict test | 5 | under 1% | under 1% |
| Acetone test | 5 | under 1% | under 1% |
| Pole test | 5 | under 1% | under 1% |
| Negative geotaxis and climbing assays | 5 | under 1% | 1% |
| Radial arm water maze | 4 | under 1% | under 1% |
| Active place avoidance | 4 | under 1% | under 1% |
| Olfactory tests | 4 | under 1% | under 1% |
| Five-choice serial reaction time task | 4 | under 1% | under 1% |
| Attentional set shifting | 3 | under 1% | under 1% |
| Adhesive removal test | 3 | under 1% | under 1% |
| Cylinder test | 3 | under 1% | 1% |
| Observational fear | 3 | under 1% | under 1% |
| Ladder rung walking | 3 | under 1% | under 1% |
| Gait analysis | 3 | under 1% | 3% |
| Runway | 2 | under 1% | under 1% |
| Plus maze for place and response learning | 2 | under 1% | under 1% |
| Paw pressure test | 2 | under 1% | under 1% |
| Skilled reaching | 2 | under 1% | under 1% |
| Thermal gradient and temperature preference | 2 | under 1% | under 1% |
| Real-time place preference | 2 | under 1% | under 1% |
| Corner test | 1 | under 1% | under 1% |
| Puzzle box | 1 | under 1% | under 1% |
| Grid walking (foot fault) | 1 | under 1% | under 1% |
| 3D radial maze | 1 | under 1% | under 1% |
| 3D open field | 1 | under 1% | under 1% |
| Burrowing | 1 | under 1% | under 1% |
| Social operant tasks | 1 | under 1% | under 1% |
Papers by year
Animal research papers on anxiety that mention 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
| Year | Papers |
|---|---|
| 2001 | 143 |
| 2002 | 166 |
| 2003 | 177 |
| 2004 | 181 |
| 2005 | 219 |
| 2006 | 246 |
| 2007 | 285 |
| 2008 | 338 |
| 2009 | 344 |
| 2010 | 325 |
| 2011 | 391 |
| 2012 | 434 |
| 2013 | 460 |
| 2014 | 511 |
| 2015 | 562 |
| 2016 | 579 |
| 2017 | 553 |
| 2018 | 539 |
| 2019 | 604 |
| 2020 | 578 |
| 2021 | 642 |
| 2022 | 564 |
| 2023 | 494 |
| 2024 | 570 |
| 2025 | 771 |
| 2026 (part year) | 624 |
Papers on anxiety that mention a test fell from 642 in 2021 to 494 in 2023, then rose to 771 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 3,041 papers from 2021 to 2025. A paper can use more than one species, so the shares can add to more than 100%.
Species
“Other animals” counts papers that use none of the species this chart names.
Which papers count
A paper counts here when it is animal research, mentions at least one of the 90 tests and studies anxiety.
MeSH terms are the subject headings the National Library of Medicine adds when it indexes a paper. A paper counts under anxiety when its MeSH terms include one of these.
- Anxiety
- Anxiety Disorders
- Panic Disorder
- Phobic Disorders
For a paper without MeSH terms, PubTator 3, NCBI's text-mining service, supplies the disease model when it finds the disease in the title or abstract. A paper can count under more than one disease model.
Our main page, Behavioral tests in published research, has the full method and each source's terms of use. Its downloads list each paper and its disease models.
More disease models
These disease models also have a page, with their papers from 2021 to 2025 that mention a test. Each disease model with 100 or more such papers gets one.
- Cognitive impairment and dementia 4,961 papers
- Depression 2,827 papers
- Pain conditions 2,617 papers
- Alzheimer disease 2,445 papers
- Substance use disorders 1,599 papers
- Psychological stress 1,484 papers
- Stroke and brain ischemia 1,278 papers
- Parkinson disease 918 papers
- Brain injury 841 papers
- Diabetes 795 papers
- Obesity and high-fat diet 761 papers
- Aging 700 papers
- Epilepsy and seizures 572 papers
- Autism spectrum disorder 484 papers
- Schizophrenia and psychosis 401 papers
- Sleep loss and sleep disorders 400 papers
- Post-traumatic stress 392 papers
- Spinal cord injury 382 papers
- Multiple sclerosis and demyelination 223 papers
- Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis 108 papers
- Attention deficit hyperactivity disorder 107 papers
How to cite
APA
ConductScience. (2026, November 10). Behavioral tests in anxiety research [Data set]. https://conductscience.com/resources/data/behavioral-tests/models/anxiety
BibTeX
@misc{conductscience_anxiety_2026,
author = {{ConductScience}},
title = {Behavioral tests in anxiety research},
year = {2026},
month = nov,
url = {https://conductscience.com/resources/data/behavioral-tests/models/anxiety},
note = {Data set, released November 10, 2026},
}Shop apparatus by test
Our store sells apparatus for all the 10 tests these papers mention most.
- Elevated plus maze
- Open field
- Forced swim test
- Light-dark box
- Novel object recognition
- Fear conditioning
- Tail suspension test
- Sucrose preference test
- Morris water maze
- Y-maze
