Research data · Disease model
Schizophrenia and psychosis
From 2021 to 2025, 401 animal research papers on schizophrenia and psychosis mentioned at least one behavioral test, most often prepulse inhibition and acoustic startle.
That is 9% fewer than the 443 papers of 2011 to 2015. Between the same two periods, all the animal research papers that mention any of the 90 tests we count rose 22%. The 2021 to 2025 count may run low because of a dip in PubMed's indexing, explained under the year chart.
The tests these papers mention
Prepulse inhibition and acoustic startle appears in 40% of the papers on schizophrenia and psychosis and in 2.5% of all 32,277 papers that mention a test. That makes it 16 times as common in this research. Each bar is one test, with how many of the 401 papers from 2021 to 2025 on schizophrenia and psychosis mention it, and what share that is. A paper that mentions two tests counts under both.
The 15 tests these papers mention most
All 48 tests these papers mention
| Test | Papers | Share of the 401 papers on schizophrenia and psychosis | Share of all 32,277 papers that mention a test |
|---|---|---|---|
| Prepulse inhibition and acoustic startle | 162 | 40% | 2% |
| Novel object recognition | 96 | 24% | 9% |
| Open field | 63 | 16% | 12% |
| Morris water maze | 40 | 10% | 17% |
| Elevated plus maze | 36 | 9% | 9% |
| Forced swim test | 33 | 8% | 9% |
| Y-maze | 30 | 7% | 6% |
| Catalepsy bar test | 26 | 6% | 1% |
| Fear conditioning | 24 | 6% | 6% |
| Social interaction test | 21 | 5% | 1% |
| Three-chamber sociability test | 14 | 3% | 1% |
| Passive avoidance | 13 | 3% | 4% |
| Tail suspension test | 12 | 3% | 4% |
| Conditioned place preference | 11 | 3% | 3% |
| Operant conditioning | 10 | 2% | 3% |
| Sucrose preference test | 10 | 2% | 5% |
| Self-grooming | 9 | 2% | 1% |
| T-maze | 9 | 2% | 1% |
| Barnes maze | 7 | 2% | 2% |
| Rotarod | 7 | 2% | 6% |
| Light-dark box | 6 | 1% | 2% |
| Active avoidance (shuttle box) | 6 | 1% | 1% |
| Attentional set shifting | 6 | 1% | under 1% |
| Touchscreen operant tasks | 5 | 1% | under 1% |
| Object location test | 4 | 1% | 1% |
| Marble burying | 4 | 1% | 1% |
| Wheel running | 3 | 1% | 3% |
| Rotational behavior (rotometer) | 3 | 1% | under 1% |
| Nest building | 3 | 1% | 1% |
| Self-administration | 3 | 1% | 4% |
| Active place avoidance | 3 | 1% | under 1% |
| Hole-board | 3 | 1% | 1% |
| Resident-intruder test | 2 | under 1% | under 1% |
| Grip strength | 2 | under 1% | 4% |
| Beam walking | 2 | under 1% | 2% |
| Negative geotaxis and climbing assays | 2 | under 1% | 1% |
| Tail flick | 2 | under 1% | 2% |
| Radial arm maze | 2 | under 1% | 1% |
| Five-choice serial reaction time task | 1 | under 1% | under 1% |
| Novel tank test | 1 | under 1% | 1% |
| Cylinder test | 1 | under 1% | 1% |
| Drug discrimination | 1 | under 1% | under 1% |
| Social approach and avoidance | 1 | under 1% | under 1% |
| Treadmill running | 1 | under 1% | 6% |
| Puzzle box | 1 | under 1% | under 1% |
| Ladder rung walking | 1 | under 1% | under 1% |
| Hebb-Williams maze | 1 | under 1% | under 1% |
| Splash test | 1 | under 1% | under 1% |
Papers by year
Animal research papers on schizophrenia and psychosis 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 | 26 |
| 2002 | 23 |
| 2003 | 21 |
| 2004 | 36 |
| 2005 | 35 |
| 2006 | 25 |
| 2007 | 39 |
| 2008 | 52 |
| 2009 | 54 |
| 2010 | 67 |
| 2011 | 71 |
| 2012 | 103 |
| 2013 | 91 |
| 2014 | 84 |
| 2015 | 94 |
| 2016 | 81 |
| 2017 | 94 |
| 2018 | 105 |
| 2019 | 96 |
| 2020 | 86 |
| 2021 | 102 |
| 2022 | 81 |
| 2023 | 75 |
| 2024 | 66 |
| 2025 | 77 |
| 2026 (part year) | 84 |
Papers on schizophrenia and psychosis that mention a test fell from 102 in 2021 to 66 in 2024, then rose to 77 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 401 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 schizophrenia and psychosis.
MeSH terms are the subject headings the National Library of Medicine adds when it indexes a paper. A paper counts under schizophrenia and psychosis when its MeSH terms include one of these.
- Schizophrenia, with the headings under it
- Psychotic 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
- 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
- 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 schizophrenia and psychosis research [Data set]. https://conductscience.com/resources/data/behavioral-tests/models/schizophrenia
BibTeX
@misc{conductscience_schizophrenia_2026,
author = {{ConductScience}},
title = {Behavioral tests in schizophrenia and psychosis research},
year = {2026},
month = nov,
url = {https://conductscience.com/resources/data/behavioral-tests/models/schizophrenia},
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.
- Novel object recognition
- Open field
- Morris water maze
- Elevated plus maze
- Forced swim test
- Y-maze
- Catalepsy bar test
- Fear conditioning
- Social interaction test
