Research data · NIH funding

NIH funding behind behavioral test papers

From 2021 to 2025, 5,033 of the 32,277 animal research papers that mention a behavioral test were NIH-funded, most often by NIDA, NINDS and NIMH.

A paper counts as NIH-funded when its PubMed record lists an NIH grant, or when NIH RePORTER links it to an NIH project. The counts cover animal research papers that mention one of 90 behavioral tests in their title or abstract, as PubMed listed them on November 8, 2026.

See the institutes See each test's share

of the papers from 2021 to 2025 that mention a test were NIH-funded

of the NIH-funded papers were funded by NIDA, more than by any other institute

of the papers that mention self-administration were NIH-funded, the highest share of any test with 100 or more papers

of the papers that mention the writhing test were NIH-funded, the lowest share

The institutes behind the papers' NIH grants

Each bar is one NIH institute, center or office. It shows how many of the 5,033 NIH-funded papers have a grant from it, and the three tests those papers mention most. A paper can have grants from more than one, so the bars add up to more than 5,033. Two rows stand for no single institute, center or office: “NIH, institute not given” counts grant lists that name NIH alone, and “NIH intramural research” counts work in NIH's own laboratories.

NIH-funded papers from 2021 to 2025, by institute

NIDATests mentioned most: self-administration (711), conditioned place preference (213), operant conditioning (205).

1,460

NINDSNational Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke. Tests mentioned most: fear conditioning (155), novel object recognition (120), the rotarod (105).

1,281

NIMHNational Institute of Mental Health. Tests mentioned most: fear conditioning (283), self-administration (69), operant conditioning (69).

980

NIGMSNational Institute of General Medical Sciences. Tests mentioned most: self-administration (115), fear conditioning (79), wheel running (70).

753

NIANational Institute on Aging. Tests mentioned most: fear conditioning (112), the Morris water maze (101), novel object recognition (91).

727

NIH, institute not givenTests mentioned most: self-administration (78), fear conditioning (73), wheel running (48).

614

NIAAANational Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism. Tests mentioned most: self-administration (199), operant conditioning (62), fear conditioning (55).

565

NICHDEunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development. Tests mentioned most: fear conditioning (61), the elevated plus maze (29), the open field (27).

337

NIDDKNational Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases. Tests mentioned most: treadmill running (58), wheel running (55), grip strength (43).

318

NHLBINational Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute. Tests mentioned most: treadmill running (88), wheel running (42), grip strength (32).

292

NCINational Cancer Institute. Tests mentioned most: wheel running (40), grip strength (29), novel object recognition (21).

250

NIAMSNational Institute of Arthritis and Musculoskeletal and Skin Diseases. Tests mentioned most: grip strength (49), treadmill running (45), wheel running (44).

190

NIEHSNational Institute of Environmental Health Sciences. Tests mentioned most: the open field (31), prepulse inhibition and acoustic startle (24), fear conditioning (24).

181

NIH Office of the DirectorTests mentioned most: fear conditioning (29), self-administration (24), wheel running (18).

167

NCATSNational Center for Advancing Translational Sciences. Tests mentioned most: self-administration (25), fear conditioning (16), novel object recognition (13).

166

Show the other 15

NIH intramural researchTests mentioned most: self-administration (55), operant conditioning (18), conditioned place preference (14).

144

NIDCDNational Institute on Deafness and Other Communication Disorders. Tests mentioned most: prepulse inhibition and acoustic startle (31), operant conditioning (18), the rotarod (10).

113

NEINational Eye Institute. Tests mentioned most: the rotarod (9), the looming stimulus (9), prepulse inhibition and acoustic startle (8).

NCCIHNational Center for Complementary and Integrative Health. Tests mentioned most: the von Frey test (9), the open field (8), wheel running (7).

NIAIDNational Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases. Tests mentioned most: novel object recognition (7), grip strength (5), the open field (4).

NIBIBNational Institute of Biomedical Imaging and Bioengineering. Tests mentioned most: fear conditioning (6), the rotarod (4), the Morris water maze (4).

NIDCRNational Institute of Dental and Craniofacial Research. Tests mentioned most: the von Frey test (16), the open field (5), novel object recognition (3).

NCRRNational Center for Research Resources, which closed in 2011; papers still list its grants. Tests mentioned most: wheel running (6), fear conditioning (5), the Morris water maze (5).

NIMHDNational Institute on Minority Health and Health Disparities. Tests mentioned most: fear conditioning (10), self-administration (5), novel object recognition (4).

NHGRINational Human Genome Research Institute. Tests mentioned most: prepulse inhibition and acoustic startle (2), fear conditioning (1), operant conditioning (1).

NINRNational Institute of Nursing Research. Tests mentioned most: the Y-maze (3), the forced swim test (2), the five-choice serial reaction time task (2).

FICFogarty International Center. Tests mentioned most: negative geotaxis and climbing assays (2), the forced swim test (2), novel object recognition (1).

NLMNational Library of Medicine. Tests mentioned most: the forced swim test (1), gait analysis (1), the rotarod (1).

CSRCenter for Scientific Review, which runs most of NIH's grant peer review. Tests mentioned most: wheel running (1), the von Frey test (1), gait analysis (1).

ORIPOffice of Research Infrastructure Programs. Its one paper mentions wheel running (1).

The share of each test's papers that were NIH-funded

Each bar is one test with 100 or more papers from 2021 to 2025. It shows the share of those papers that were NIH-funded, and the institute their grants name most often. The Morris water maze, the test with the most papers, has one of the lowest shares: 268 of its 5,392 papers, or 5%.

The highest shares

Self-administration868 of 1,399 papers, most often NIDA

62%

Operant conditioning388 of 945 papers, most often NIDA

41%

Attentional set shifting40 of 113 papers, most often NIMH

35%

Wheel running314 of 992 papers, most often NIGMS

32%

Touchscreen operant tasks43 of 146 papers, most often NIMH

29%

Predator odor exposure54 of 185 papers, most often NIAAA

29%

Five-choice serial reaction time task30 of 103 papers, most often NIMH

29%

Fear conditioning565 of 2,010 papers, most often NIMH

28%

The lowest shares

Writhing test4 of 528 papers, most often NIDA

Hole-board7 of 206 papers, most often NIDA

Tail suspension test49 of 1,405 papers, most often NIMH

Passive avoidance43 of 1,142 papers, most often NIMH

Formalin test21 of 545 papers, most often NIDA

Morris water maze268 of 5,392 papers, most often NIA

Pole test9 of 161 papers, most often NINDS

Y-maze125 of 1,988 papers, most often NIA

Show the 56 tests with 100 or more papers

NIH-funded papers by test
Test	Papers	NIH-funded	Share	Institute named most
Self-administration	1,399	868	62%	NIDA
Operant conditioning	945	388	41%	NIDA
Attentional set shifting	113	40	35%	NIMH
Wheel running	992	314	32%	NIGMS
Touchscreen operant tasks	146	43	29%	NIMH
Predator odor exposure	185	54	29%	NIAAA
Five-choice serial reaction time task	103	30	29%	NIMH
Fear conditioning	2,010	565	28%	NIMH
Conditioned place preference	1,078	300	28%	NIDA
Elevated zero maze	136	36	26%	NIDA
Prepulse inhibition and acoustic startle	804	204	25%	NIMH
Object location test	339	66	19%	NINDS
Ladder rung walking	104	20	19%	NINDS
Novelty-suppressed feeding	260	48	18%	NIAAA
Rotational behavior (rotometer)	110	19	17%	NINDS
Barnes maze	499	84	17%	NINDS
Marble burying	328	55	17%	NIDA
Active avoidance (shuttle box)	210	35	17%	NINDS
Self-grooming	447	74	17%	NIMH
Grid walking (foot fault)	155	25	16%	NINDS
Grip strength	1,354	198	15%	NIA
Tail flick	545	79	14%	NIDA
Social interaction test	482	68	14%	NIMH
Hargreaves plantar test	174	24	14%	NINDS
Negative geotaxis and climbing assays	305	42	14%	NINDS
T-maze	436	60	14%	NINDS
Von Frey test	1,282	174	14%	NINDS
Treadmill running	2,091	283	14%	NHLBI
Nest building	422	57	14%	NINDS
Resident-intruder test	134	18	13%	NIMH
Catalepsy bar test	244	31	13%	NIDA
Radial arm maze	225	28	12%	NIA
Beam walking	491	60	12%	NINDS
Light-dark box	725	88	12%	NIAAA
Rotarod	1,844	223	12%	NINDS
Three-chamber sociability test	339	39	12%	NIMH
Splash test	132	15	11%	NIMH
Wire hang and inverted grid	206	23	11%	NINDS
Gait analysis	821	91	11%	NINDS
Novel object recognition	3,019	313	10%	NINDS
Adhesive removal test	107	11	10%	NINDS
Cylinder test	163	15	9%	NINDS
Elevated plus maze	2,883	262	9%	NIDA
Open field	3,980	331	8%	NINDS
Sucrose preference test	1,522	112	7%	NIMH
Hot plate	762	56	7%	NIDA
Novel tank test	245	16	7%	NIGMS
Forced swim test	2,988	193	6%	NIMH
Y-maze	1,988	125	6%	NIA
Pole test	161	9	6%	NINDS
Morris water maze	5,392	268	5%	NIA
Formalin test	545	21	4%	NIDA
Passive avoidance	1,142	43	4%	NIMH
Tail suspension test	1,405	49	3%	NIMH
Hole-board	206	7	3%	NIDA
Writhing test	528	4	1%	NIDA

How we count NIH funding

We count NIH grants only, so a paper with no NIH grant counts as not NIH-funded, whoever else paid for the work.

Each row uses NIH's own abbreviation, as the grant lists print it, so a row can name a part of NIH that has closed (NCRR) or that reviews grants rather than funding them (CSR). The paper list download gives each paper's institutes, so you can count them again.

Download the paper list