Research data · Disease model and test

Step-down avoidance in cognitive impairment and dementia research

From 2021 to 2025, 54 animal research papers on cognitive impairment and dementia mentioned step-down avoidance in their title or abstract.

That is 47% fewer than the 101 papers of 2011 to 2015. Between the same two periods, the papers on cognitive impairment and dementia that mention any of the 90 tests we count rose 70%.

54 papers on cognitive impairment and dementia from 2021 to 2025 mentioned step-down avoidance
1% of the papers on cognitive impairment and dementia that mention any test mention step-down avoidance
56% of the papers that mention step-down avoidance are on cognitive impairment and dementia
47% fewer papers than in 2011 to 2015

Papers by year

Animal research papers on cognitive impairment and dementia that mention step-down avoidance, 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
20026
20037
20046
20054
20067
20079
20088
200911
201021
201114
201215
201325
201423
201524
201627
201722
201821
201923
202016
202114
202213
202312
20248
20257
2026 (part year)5

Which species the papers used

Each bar is a share of the 54 papers from 2021 to 2025. A paper can use more than one species, so the shares can add to more than 100%.

Species

Mouse
37 papers 69%
Rat
16 papers 30%
Other animals
1 paper 2%

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

Tests mentioned alongside step-down avoidance

Each bar is one test, with how many of the 54 papers also mention it, and what share that is. Of these papers, 5 (9%) mention no other test.

The 12 tests these papers mention most

30 papers 56%
28 papers 52%
5 papers 9%
3 papers 6%
2 papers 4%
2 papers 4%
2 papers 4%
2 papers 4%

Which papers count

A paper counts here when it is animal research, mentions step-down avoidance in its title or abstract, and studies cognitive impairment and dementia.

We tell whether a paper studies cognitive impairment and dementia 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 cognitive impairment and dementia research names the subject headings we count as cognitive impairment and dementia. Download the test list for the search terms we used for step-down avoidance, 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.

The page on step-down avoidance counts all the papers that mention it, whatever they study. The page on cognitive impairment and dementia research ranks the tests by their papers on cognitive impairment and dementia.

How to cite

APA

ConductScience. (2026, November 10). Step-down avoidance in cognitive impairment and dementia research [Data set]. https://conductscience.com/resources/data/behavioral-tests/models/cognitive-impairment/step-down-avoidance

BibTeX

@misc{conductscience_cognitive_impairment_step_down_avoidance_2026,
  author = {{ConductScience}},
  title = {Step-down avoidance in cognitive impairment and dementia research},
  year = {2026},
  month = nov,
  url = {https://conductscience.com/resources/data/behavioral-tests/models/cognitive-impairment/step-down-avoidance},
  note = {Data set, released November 10, 2026},
}

Step-down avoidance apparatus in our store

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