Research data · Disease model
Post-traumatic stress
From 2021 to 2025, 392 animal research papers on post-traumatic stress mentioned at least one behavioral test, most often fear conditioning.
That is 1.8 times the 214 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
Fear conditioning appears in 57% of the papers on post-traumatic stress and in 6.2% of all 32,277 papers that mention a test. That makes it 9.1 times as common in this research. Each bar is one test, with how many of the 392 papers from 2021 to 2025 on post-traumatic stress mention it, and what share that is. A paper that mentions two tests counts under both.
The 15 tests these papers mention most
All 44 tests these papers mention
| Test | Papers | Share of the 392 papers on post-traumatic stress | Share of all 32,277 papers that mention a test |
|---|---|---|---|
| Fear conditioning | 222 | 57% | 6% |
| Elevated plus maze | 113 | 29% | 9% |
| Open field | 52 | 13% | 12% |
| Forced swim test | 41 | 10% | 9% |
| Prepulse inhibition and acoustic startle | 30 | 8% | 2% |
| Predator odor exposure | 28 | 7% | 1% |
| Novel object recognition | 19 | 5% | 9% |
| Morris water maze | 13 | 3% | 17% |
| Y-maze | 13 | 3% | 6% |
| Sucrose preference test | 12 | 3% | 5% |
| Tail suspension test | 11 | 3% | 4% |
| Passive avoidance | 10 | 3% | 4% |
| Light-dark box | 10 | 3% | 2% |
| Self-administration | 8 | 2% | 4% |
| Novelty-suppressed feeding | 7 | 2% | 1% |
| Elevated zero maze | 6 | 2% | under 1% |
| Hole-board | 5 | 1% | 1% |
| Marble burying | 5 | 1% | 1% |
| Learned helplessness | 5 | 1% | under 1% |
| Treadmill running | 4 | 1% | 6% |
| Social interaction test | 4 | 1% | 1% |
| Von Frey test | 3 | 1% | 4% |
| Object location test | 3 | 1% | 1% |
| Barnes maze | 3 | 1% | 2% |
| Conditioned place preference | 3 | 1% | 3% |
| Social approach and avoidance | 3 | 1% | under 1% |
| Active avoidance (shuttle box) | 3 | 1% | 1% |
| Hot plate | 2 | 1% | 2% |
| Attentional set shifting | 2 | 1% | under 1% |
| Resident-intruder test | 2 | 1% | under 1% |
| Three-chamber sociability test | 2 | 1% | 1% |
| Observational fear | 2 | 1% | under 1% |
| Operant conditioning | 2 | 1% | 3% |
| Grip strength | 1 | under 1% | 4% |
| Tail flick | 1 | under 1% | 2% |
| Formalin test | 1 | under 1% | 2% |
| Radial arm water maze | 1 | under 1% | under 1% |
| T-maze | 1 | under 1% | 1% |
| Self-grooming | 1 | under 1% | 1% |
| Beam walking | 1 | under 1% | 2% |
| Looming stimulus | 1 | under 1% | under 1% |
| Splash test | 1 | under 1% | under 1% |
| Novel tank test | 1 | under 1% | 1% |
| Rotarod | 1 | under 1% | 6% |
Papers by year
Animal research papers on post-traumatic stress 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 | 4 |
| 2002 | 2 |
| 2003 | 3 |
| 2004 | 7 |
| 2005 | 6 |
| 2006 | 19 |
| 2007 | 12 |
| 2008 | 21 |
| 2009 | 13 |
| 2010 | 17 |
| 2011 | 15 |
| 2012 | 47 |
| 2013 | 40 |
| 2014 | 56 |
| 2015 | 56 |
| 2016 | 63 |
| 2017 | 58 |
| 2018 | 87 |
| 2019 | 86 |
| 2020 | 96 |
| 2021 | 106 |
| 2022 | 67 |
| 2023 | 64 |
| 2024 | 62 |
| 2025 | 93 |
| 2026 (part year) | 80 |
Papers on post-traumatic stress that mention a test fell from 106 in 2021 to 62 in 2024, then rose to 93 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 392 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 post-traumatic stress.
MeSH terms are the subject headings the National Library of Medicine adds when it indexes a paper. A paper counts under post-traumatic stress when its MeSH terms include one of these.
- Stress Disorders, Post-Traumatic
- Stress Disorders, Traumatic
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
- 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
- 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 post-traumatic stress research [Data set]. https://conductscience.com/resources/data/behavioral-tests/models/ptsd
BibTeX
@misc{conductscience_ptsd_2026,
author = {{ConductScience}},
title = {Behavioral tests in post-traumatic stress research},
year = {2026},
month = nov,
url = {https://conductscience.com/resources/data/behavioral-tests/models/ptsd},
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 prepulse inhibition and acoustic startle.
- Fear conditioning
- Elevated plus maze
- Open field
- Forced swim test
- Predator odor exposure
- Novel object recognition
- Morris water maze
- Y-maze
- Sucrose preference test
