Research data · Motor function and endurance

Rotarod

Name: Rotarod in published research
Creator: ConductScience
Published: 2026-11-10

From 2021 to 2025, 1,844 animal research papers mentioned the rotarod in their title or abstract, ranking it ninth of the 90 tests we track.

That is 1.4 times the 1,317 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.

Shop the apparatus See all 90 tests

animal research papers from 2021 to 2025 mentioned the test

as many papers as in 2011 to 2015

9th most mentioned of the 90 tests in 2021 to 2025

of these papers used mice and 36% used rats (some used both)

Papers by year

Animal research papers that mention the rotarod, 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
Year	Papers
2001	80
2002	80
2003	101
2004	105
2005	120
2006	110
2007	134
2008	155
2009	157
2010	196
2011	215
2012	263
2013	270
2014	273
2015	296
2016	305
2017	311
2018	337
2019	330
2020	360
2021	358
2022	352
2023	303
2024	380
2025	451
2026 (part year)	429

Papers that mention the rotarod fell from 358 in 2021 to 303 in 2023, then rose to 451 in 2025. Part of this dip may come from PubMed's indexing rather than from fewer studies. When PubMed's indexing names a paper's species, we use it. Otherwise PubTator 3, NCBI's text-mining service, has to find a species in the title or abstract, or the paper is not counted. 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.

Mice led rats every year from 2001 to 2025.

Papers that mention the rotarod, by species, 2001 to 2025

Mouse
Rat

Mouse Rat

Show the counts for each year and species

Papers by year, mice and rats
Year	Mouse	Rat
2001	50	41
2002	52	37
2003	70	46
2004	70	48
2005	81	51
2006	70	47
2007	97	45
2008	105	55
2009	105	64
2010	131	77
2011	121	106
2012	187	89
2013	185	94
2014	185	100
2015	203	104
2016	203	123
2017	193	128
2018	228	129
2019	236	107
2020	246	128
2021	243	128
2022	228	128
2023	198	111
2024	247	136
2025	311	154

Which species the papers used

Each bar is a share of the 1,844 papers from 2021 to 2025. A paper can use more than one species, so the shares can add to more than 100%.

Species

Mouse

1,227 67%

Rat

657 36%

Other animals

25 1%

Zebrafish

5 under 1%

Nonhuman primate

2 under 1%

Fruit fly

1 under 1%

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

Strains and genetic lines

Strain names come from the MeSH terms PubMed adds when it indexes a paper. PubMed has indexed 1,474 of the 1,844 papers, so each bar is a share of those 1,474.

C57BL mice

446 30%

Sprague-Dawley rats

188 13%

Wistar rats

160 11%

Transgenic mice

110 7%

Knockout mice

77 5%

BALB/c mice

26 2%

ICR mice

14 1%

mdx mice

10 1%

A paper indexed under two of these headings, such as knockout mice and a strain, counts under both.

Disease models in papers that mention the rotarod

Each bar is one disease model, with how many of the 1,844 papers from 2021 to 2025 that mention the rotarod use it, and what share that is. The model comes from the paper's MeSH terms, the subject headings the National Library of Medicine adds when it indexes a paper. A paper without MeSH terms gets its model from PubTator 3, NCBI's text-mining service, if PubTator 3 finds the disease in the title or abstract. A paper can count under more than one model.

Papers from 2021 to 2025 by disease model

Parkinson disease

332 18%

Stroke and brain ischemia

245 13%

Brain injury

151 8%

Pain conditions

146 8%

Cognitive impairment and dementia

86 5%

Anxiety

85 5%

Epilepsy and seizures

73 4%

Multiple sclerosis and demyelination

66 4%

Alzheimer disease

56 3%

Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis

54 3%

Tests mentioned alongside the rotarod

Each bar is one test, with how many of the 1,844 papers from 2021 to 2025 that mention the rotarod also mention it, and what share that is.

Papers from 2021 to 2025 that mention both tests

283 15%

192 10%

191 10%

141 8%

123 7%

98 5%

95 5%

Novel object recognition

86 5%

To count the papers that mention three or more tests together, start from the rotarod in the test battery tool.

The most cited papers from 2021 to 2025

These papers from 2021 to 2025 mention the rotarod and have the most citations, as counted by NIH's iCite on November 5, 2026.

Activating cGAS-STING axis contributes to neuroinflammation in CVST mouse model and induces inflammasome activation and microglia pyroptosis.
J Neuroinflammation, 2022. 217 citations.
Targeting ROS-Dependent AKT/GSK-3β/NF-κB and DJ-1/Nrf2 Pathways by Dapagliflozin Attenuates Neuronal Injury and Motor Dysfunction in Rotenone-Induced Parkinson's Disease Rat Model.
ACS Chem Neurosci, 2021. 156 citations.
Quercetin Protects against MPP+/MPTP-Induced Dopaminergic Neuron Death in Parkinson's Disease by Inhibiting Ferroptosis.
Oxid Med Cell Longev, 2022. 136 citations.
TAK1 mediates neuronal pyroptosis in early brain injury after subarachnoid hemorrhage.
J Neuroinflammation, 2021. 116 citations.
Minocycline promotes functional recovery in ischemic stroke by modulating microglia polarization through STAT1/STAT6 pathways.
Biochem Pharmacol, 2021. 116 citations.

How we counted

A count is the number of animal research papers whose title or abstract mentions one of the test's search terms. It is not a count of experiments, labs or animals.

A paper that mentions the rotarod only in its methods is missed, so the count runs low. The count includes 19 reviews. For 371 of the 1,844 papers, PubMed's indexing gave no species, so the species came from PubTator 3 finding one in the title or abstract.

The test's search terms are in the test list download. The full method, with each source and its terms of use, is on our main page, Behavioral tests in published research.

More motor function and endurance tests

These motor function and endurance tests also have a page, with their papers from 2021 to 2025. Each test with 30 or more papers gets one.

How to cite

APA

ConductScience. (2026, November 10). Rotarod in published research [Data set]. https://conductscience.com/resources/data/behavioral-tests/rotarod

BibTeX

@misc{conductscience_rotarod_2026,
  author = {{ConductScience}},
  title = {Rotarod in published research},
  year = {2026},
  month = nov,
  url = {https://conductscience.com/resources/data/behavioral-tests/rotarod},
  note = {Data set, released November 10, 2026},
}

Apparatus for the rotarod

Our store sells one product for the rotarod.

Shop the apparatus

Papers that name our apparatus

We keep our own list of published papers whose text names our equipment. Those that mention the rotarod in the title or abstract are already in the counts above.

18 papers from 2020 to 2026 name our Rotarod Test. See the papers