Research data · Brain technique
AAV vectors
From 2021 to 2025, 546 animal research papers mentioned AAV vectors and at least one behavioral test.
That is 5.7 times the 96 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 mentioned with AAV vectors
Each bar is one test, with how many of the 546 papers from 2021 to 2025 mention it, and what share that is. A paper that mentions two tests counts under both.
The 15 tests these papers mention most
All 59 tests these papers mention
| Test | Papers | Share of the 546 papers |
|---|---|---|
| Morris water maze | 103 | 19% |
| Open field | 70 | 13% |
| Fear conditioning | 52 | 10% |
| Novel object recognition | 52 | 10% |
| Rotarod | 51 | 9% |
| Forced swim test | 50 | 9% |
| Grip strength | 43 | 8% |
| Elevated plus maze | 38 | 7% |
| Sucrose preference test | 35 | 6% |
| Treadmill running | 35 | 6% |
| Y-maze | 34 | 6% |
| Conditioned place preference | 32 | 6% |
| Tail suspension test | 28 | 5% |
| Von Frey test | 24 | 4% |
| Self-administration | 17 | 3% |
| Object location test | 16 | 3% |
| Gait analysis | 15 | 3% |
| Beam walking | 12 | 2% |
| Wheel running | 11 | 2% |
| Cylinder test | 10 | 2% |
| Barnes maze | 10 | 2% |
| Prepulse inhibition and acoustic startle | 10 | 2% |
| Adhesive removal test | 9 | 2% |
| Passive avoidance | 7 | 1% |
| Light-dark box | 7 | 1% |
| Grid walking (foot fault) | 6 | 1% |
| Self-grooming | 6 | 1% |
| Marble burying | 6 | 1% |
| Rotational behavior (rotometer) | 6 | 1% |
| Operant conditioning | 5 | 1% |
| Novelty-suppressed feeding | 5 | 1% |
| Pole test | 5 | 1% |
| Wire hang and inverted grid | 5 | 1% |
| T-maze | 4 | 1% |
| Ladder rung walking | 4 | 1% |
| Social interaction test | 4 | 1% |
| Hot plate | 4 | 1% |
| Skilled reaching | 3 | 1% |
| Real-time place preference | 3 | 1% |
| Catalepsy bar test | 3 | 1% |
| Hargreaves plantar test | 3 | 1% |
| Nest building | 3 | 1% |
| Elevated zero maze | 3 | 1% |
| Social approach and avoidance | 2 | under 1% |
| Resident-intruder test | 2 | under 1% |
| Looming stimulus | 2 | under 1% |
| Three-chamber sociability test | 2 | under 1% |
| Formalin test | 2 | under 1% |
| Predator odor exposure | 2 | under 1% |
| Plus maze for place and response learning | 1 | under 1% |
| Drug discrimination | 1 | under 1% |
| Active avoidance (shuttle box) | 1 | under 1% |
| Radial arm water maze | 1 | under 1% |
| Acetone test | 1 | under 1% |
| Tail flick | 1 | under 1% |
| Negative geotaxis and climbing assays | 1 | under 1% |
| Attentional set shifting | 1 | under 1% |
| Step-down avoidance | 1 | under 1% |
| Radial arm maze | 1 | under 1% |
Tests named in 30 or more of these papers link to a page on that test with AAV vectors. To count the papers that mention two or more tests together, use the test battery tool.
Papers by year
Animal research papers that mention AAV vectors and 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 | 2 |
| 2002 | 2 |
| 2003 | 3 |
| 2004 | 3 |
| 2005 | 6 |
| 2006 | 7 |
| 2007 | 14 |
| 2008 | 10 |
| 2009 | 13 |
| 2010 | 15 |
| 2011 | 9 |
| 2012 | 15 |
| 2013 | 23 |
| 2014 | 24 |
| 2015 | 25 |
| 2016 | 35 |
| 2017 | 48 |
| 2018 | 44 |
| 2019 | 52 |
| 2020 | 77 |
| 2021 | 84 |
| 2022 | 85 |
| 2023 | 107 |
| 2024 | 119 |
| 2025 | 151 |
| 2026 (part year) | 161 |
Disease models in papers that mention AAV vectors
Each bar is one disease model, with how many of the 546 papers from 2021 to 2025 are tagged with 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
Which species the papers used
Each bar is a share of the 546 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.
NIH funding
101 of the 546 papers (18%) had NIH funding. NINDS, the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke, funded the most, 30 of them. A paper counts as NIH-funded when its PubMed record lists an NIH grant, or when NIH RePORTER links it to an NIH project.
NIH-funded papers by institute
Each share is of the NIH-funded papers. A paper with grants from two institutes counts under both.
The most cited papers from 2021 to 2025
These papers from 2021 to 2025 mention AAV vectors and a behavioral test and have the most citations, as counted by NIH's iCite on November 5, 2026.
Edaravone ameliorates depressive and anxiety-like behaviors via Sirt1/Nrf2/HO-1/Gpx4 pathway.
J Neuroinflammation, 2022. 467 citations.
Circulation, 2022. 222 citations.
Biol Psychiatry, 2021. 129 citations.
Gastroenterology, 2021. 105 citations.
Mol Neurodegener, 2024. 104 citations.
How we counted
A paper counts here when it is animal research and its title or abstract mentions AAV vectors and at least one of the 90 behavioral tests. A count is a number of papers, not of experiments, labs or animals. A paper that mentions AAV vectors only in its methods is missed, so the count runs low.
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.
The search terms for AAV vectors are in the download Animal models and brain techniques. The counts in the chart of tests are in Tests mentioned with each model or technique. The full method, with each source and its terms of use, is on our main page, Behavioral tests in published research.
More brain techniques
Each brain technique with 100 or more papers from 2021 to 2025 that mention a test has a page. These are the others, each with that count.
- Intracerebroventricular (ICV) injection 706 papers
- Chemogenetics (DREADDs) 505 papers
- Optogenetics 443 papers
- In vivo electrophysiology 335 papers
- Intranasal delivery 299 papers
- EEG and ECoG 265 papers
- Intrathecal injection 257 papers
- Fiber photometry 177 papers
- Transcranial stimulation 152 papers
- Microdialysis 133 papers
How to cite
APA
ConductScience. (2026, November 13). Behavioral tests with AAV vectors [Data set]. https://conductscience.com/resources/data/brain-techniques/aav-vectors
BibTeX
@misc{conductscience_aav_vectors_2026,
author = {{ConductScience}},
title = {Behavioral tests with AAV vectors},
year = {2026},
month = nov,
url = {https://conductscience.com/resources/data/brain-techniques/aav-vectors},
note = {Data set, released November 13, 2026},
}Equipment in our store
For studies with AAV vectors, our store sells:
Apparatus for the tests
Our store sells apparatus for all the 10 tests these papers mention most.
