Research data
Brain techniques in behavioral research
From 2021 to 2025, 3,620 animal research papers mentioned a behavioral test and one of these 16 brain techniques, from viral vectors and optogenetics to EEG and microdialysis.
Every brain technique we count
Each bar counts the animal research papers from 2021 to 2025 that mention the brain technique and at least one of the 90 behavioral tests. Under each name are the three tests mentioned most in its papers, with the share of its papers that mention each. Each brain technique with 100 or more such papers has a page of its own.
The 5 brain techniques without a link have fewer than 100 such papers.
How we counted
A paper counts when it is animal research and its title or abstract mentions one of a brain technique's search terms and one of the 90 behavioral tests. A count is a number of papers, not of experiments, labs or animals. A paper that mentions the brain technique only in its methods is missed, so the counts run low.
Each technique has its own search terms, matched as whole words. Optogenetics counts only near a word such as light or stimulation, and fiber photometry only near a sensor or signal, such as GCaMP or calcium activity. A paper is animal research when its MeSH terms name an animal species. If they name none, NCBI's text-mining service PubTator 3 has to find one in the title or abstract. Papers on animals other than mice, rats, zebrafish, flies and primates count only when they also mention a test. Many of them study people or use the same words for something else. A paper can count under more than one brain technique.
The search terms for each brain technique are in the downloads below. The full method, with each source and its terms of use, is on our main page, Behavioral tests in published research.
Download the data
Each file covers both the animal models and the brain techniques.
- Animal models and brain techniques
One row per model or technique: its papers in each period, those that also mention a test, their species and the search terms.
CSV
- Papers by model or technique and year
One row per model or technique and year, with its papers and those that also mention a test.
CSV
- Every counted paper
One row for each model or technique an animal paper mentions, by PubMed ID, with the tests it mentions, its species and disease models.
CSV, compressed
- Tests mentioned with each model or technique
One row per model or technique and test, with the papers from 2021 to 2025 that mention both.
CSV
How to cite
APA
ConductScience. (2026, November 13). Brain techniques in behavioral research [Data set]. https://conductscience.com/resources/data/brain-techniques
BibTeX
@misc{conductscience_brain_techniques_2026,
author = {{ConductScience}},
title = {Brain techniques in behavioral research},
year = {2026},
month = nov,
url = {https://conductscience.com/resources/data/brain-techniques},
note = {Data set, released November 13, 2026},
}Equipment in our store
Our store sells equipment for many of these brain techniques.
- Stereotaxic systems
- Microinjection and infusion
- Optogenetics systems and kits
- Optogenetics and photometry
- Electrophysiology
- Fiber photometry system
