Research data · Disease model
Cognitive impairment and dementia
From 2021 to 2025, 4,961 animal research papers on cognitive impairment and dementia mentioned at least one behavioral test, most often the Morris water maze.
That is 1.7 times the 2,913 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 Morris water maze appears in 54% of the papers on cognitive impairment and dementia and in 17% of all 32,277 papers that mention a test. That makes it 3.2 times as common in this research. Each bar is one test, with how many of the 4,961 papers from 2021 to 2025 on cognitive impairment and dementia mention it, and what share that is. A paper that mentions two tests counts under both.
The 15 tests these papers mention most
All 74 tests these papers mention
| Test | Papers | Share of the 4,961 papers on cognitive impairment and dementia | Share of all 32,277 papers that mention a test |
|---|---|---|---|
| Morris water maze | 2,660 | 54% | 17% |
| Novel object recognition | 1,400 | 28% | 9% |
| Y-maze | 961 | 19% | 6% |
| Passive avoidance | 557 | 11% | 4% |
| Open field | 493 | 10% | 12% |
| Elevated plus maze | 394 | 8% | 9% |
| Fear conditioning | 357 | 7% | 6% |
| Barnes maze | 232 | 5% | 2% |
| Forced swim test | 171 | 3% | 9% |
| Object location test | 141 | 3% | 1% |
| T-maze | 140 | 3% | 1% |
| Tail suspension test | 100 | 2% | 4% |
| Treadmill running | 95 | 2% | 6% |
| Radial arm maze | 94 | 2% | 1% |
| Sucrose preference test | 89 | 2% | 5% |
| Rotarod | 86 | 2% | 6% |
| Step-down avoidance | 54 | 1% | under 1% |
| Grip strength | 52 | 1% | 4% |
| Prepulse inhibition and acoustic startle | 49 | 1% | 2% |
| Active avoidance (shuttle box) | 46 | 1% | 1% |
| Nest building | 41 | 1% | 1% |
| Three-chamber sociability test | 39 | 1% | 1% |
| Light-dark box | 37 | 1% | 2% |
| Wheel running | 37 | 1% | 3% |
| Novel tank test | 32 | 1% | 1% |
| Attentional set shifting | 29 | 1% | under 1% |
| Beam walking | 29 | 1% | 2% |
| Touchscreen operant tasks | 28 | 1% | under 1% |
| Social interaction test | 28 | 1% | 1% |
| Marble burying | 25 | 1% | 1% |
| Operant conditioning | 24 | under 1% | 3% |
| Von Frey test | 21 | under 1% | 4% |
| Hole-board | 21 | under 1% | 1% |
| Radial arm water maze | 20 | under 1% | under 1% |
| Conditioned place preference | 17 | under 1% | 3% |
| Self-administration | 16 | under 1% | 4% |
| Negative geotaxis and climbing assays | 14 | under 1% | 1% |
| Catalepsy bar test | 14 | under 1% | 1% |
| Five-choice serial reaction time task | 13 | under 1% | under 1% |
| Self-grooming | 12 | under 1% | 1% |
| Hot plate | 12 | under 1% | 2% |
| Novelty-suppressed feeding | 11 | under 1% | 1% |
| Wire hang and inverted grid | 11 | under 1% | 1% |
| Puzzle box | 9 | under 1% | under 1% |
| Splash test | 8 | under 1% | under 1% |
| Olfactory tests | 8 | under 1% | under 1% |
| Pole test | 8 | under 1% | under 1% |
| Elevated zero maze | 7 | under 1% | under 1% |
| Active place avoidance | 7 | under 1% | under 1% |
| Resident-intruder test | 7 | under 1% | under 1% |
| Ladder rung walking | 6 | under 1% | under 1% |
| Gait analysis | 6 | under 1% | 3% |
| Plus maze for place and response learning | 6 | under 1% | under 1% |
| Tail flick | 6 | under 1% | 2% |
| Cylinder test | 4 | under 1% | 1% |
| Hebb-Williams maze | 4 | under 1% | under 1% |
| Burrowing | 4 | under 1% | under 1% |
| Hargreaves plantar test | 3 | under 1% | 1% |
| Elevated T-maze | 3 | under 1% | under 1% |
| Formalin test | 3 | under 1% | 2% |
| Cold plate | 3 | under 1% | under 1% |
| Predator odor exposure | 3 | under 1% | 1% |
| Acetone test | 3 | under 1% | under 1% |
| Three-choice serial reaction time task | 3 | under 1% | under 1% |
| Rotational behavior (rotometer) | 3 | under 1% | under 1% |
| Learned helplessness | 2 | under 1% | under 1% |
| Corner test | 2 | under 1% | under 1% |
| Grid walking (foot fault) | 1 | under 1% | under 1% |
| Social approach and avoidance | 1 | under 1% | under 1% |
| Skilled reaching | 1 | under 1% | under 1% |
| Paw pressure test | 1 | under 1% | under 1% |
| Adhesive removal test | 1 | under 1% | under 1% |
| Runway | 1 | under 1% | under 1% |
| Water Y-maze | 1 | under 1% | under 1% |
Papers by year
Animal research papers on cognitive impairment and dementia 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 | 122 |
| 2002 | 153 |
| 2003 | 163 |
| 2004 | 184 |
| 2005 | 188 |
| 2006 | 196 |
| 2007 | 254 |
| 2008 | 316 |
| 2009 | 354 |
| 2010 | 378 |
| 2011 | 429 |
| 2012 | 542 |
| 2013 | 610 |
| 2014 | 612 |
| 2015 | 720 |
| 2016 | 773 |
| 2017 | 852 |
| 2018 | 896 |
| 2019 | 950 |
| 2020 | 960 |
| 2021 | 1,001 |
| 2022 | 1,000 |
| 2023 | 871 |
| 2024 | 979 |
| 2025 | 1,110 |
| 2026 (part year) | 944 |
Papers on cognitive impairment and dementia that mention a test fell from 1,001 in 2021 to 871 in 2023, then rose to 1,110 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 4,961 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 cognitive impairment and dementia.
MeSH terms are the subject headings the National Library of Medicine adds when it indexes a paper. A paper counts under cognitive impairment and dementia when its MeSH terms include one of these.
- Cognitive Dysfunction
- Memory Disorders
- Cognition Disorders
- Dementia, with the headings under it
- Frontotemporal Dementia
- Amnesia, with the headings under it
- Postoperative Cognitive Complications
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.
- Anxiety 3,041 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 cognitive impairment and dementia research [Data set]. https://conductscience.com/resources/data/behavioral-tests/models/cognitive-impairment
BibTeX
@misc{conductscience_cognitive_impairment_2026,
author = {{ConductScience}},
title = {Behavioral tests in cognitive impairment and dementia research},
year = {2026},
month = nov,
url = {https://conductscience.com/resources/data/behavioral-tests/models/cognitive-impairment},
note = {Data set, released November 10, 2026},
}Shop apparatus by test
Our store sells apparatus for nine of the 10 tests these papers mention most, all but the object location test.
- Morris water maze
- Novel object recognition
- Y-maze
- Passive avoidance
- Open field
- Elevated plus maze
- Fear conditioning
- Barnes maze
- Forced swim test
