Research data · Brain technique
Chemogenetics (DREADDs)
From 2021 to 2025, 505 animal research papers mentioned chemogenetics and at least one behavioral test.
That is 30 times the 17 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 chemogenetics
Self-administration appears in 11% of these papers and in 4.3% of all 32,277 papers that mention a test. That makes it 2.6 times as common in this research. Each bar is one test, with how many of the 505 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 64 tests these papers mention
| Test | Papers | Share of the 505 papers |
|---|---|---|
| Fear conditioning | 78 | 15% |
| Self-administration | 57 | 11% |
| Open field | 56 | 11% |
| Elevated plus maze | 50 | 10% |
| Conditioned place preference | 50 | 10% |
| Novel object recognition | 36 | 7% |
| Von Frey test | 35 | 7% |
| Forced swim test | 28 | 6% |
| Tail suspension test | 22 | 4% |
| Operant conditioning | 21 | 4% |
| Morris water maze | 16 | 3% |
| Predator odor exposure | 15 | 3% |
| Light-dark box | 14 | 3% |
| Rotarod | 13 | 3% |
| Object location test | 13 | 3% |
| Sucrose preference test | 12 | 2% |
| Prepulse inhibition and acoustic startle | 12 | 2% |
| Y-maze | 12 | 2% |
| Three-chamber sociability test | 11 | 2% |
| Self-grooming | 10 | 2% |
| Novelty-suppressed feeding | 9 | 2% |
| Resident-intruder test | 9 | 2% |
| Treadmill running | 9 | 2% |
| Attentional set shifting | 7 | 1% |
| Wheel running | 7 | 1% |
| Social interaction test | 6 | 1% |
| Marble burying | 6 | 1% |
| T-maze | 6 | 1% |
| Hargreaves plantar test | 6 | 1% |
| Learned helplessness | 5 | 1% |
| Five-choice serial reaction time task | 5 | 1% |
| Olfactory tests | 5 | 1% |
| Tube test for social dominance | 5 | 1% |
| Active avoidance (shuttle box) | 5 | 1% |
| Touchscreen operant tasks | 4 | 1% |
| Beam walking | 4 | 1% |
| Formalin test | 4 | 1% |
| Grip strength | 4 | 1% |
| Looming stimulus | 4 | 1% |
| Ladder rung walking | 3 | 1% |
| Barnes maze | 3 | 1% |
| Grid walking (foot fault) | 3 | 1% |
| Skilled reaching | 3 | 1% |
| Cylinder test | 3 | 1% |
| Splash test | 2 | under 1% |
| Rotational behavior (rotometer) | 2 | under 1% |
| Hot plate | 2 | under 1% |
| Social approach and avoidance | 2 | under 1% |
| Elevated zero maze | 2 | under 1% |
| Wire hang and inverted grid | 2 | under 1% |
| Nest building | 2 | under 1% |
| Tail flick | 2 | under 1% |
| Cold plate | 2 | under 1% |
| Negative geotaxis and climbing assays | 1 | under 1% |
| Drug discrimination | 1 | under 1% |
| Hole-board | 1 | under 1% |
| Water Y-maze | 1 | under 1% |
| Three-choice serial reaction time task | 1 | under 1% |
| Gait analysis | 1 | under 1% |
| Adhesive removal test | 1 | under 1% |
| Hebb-Williams maze | 1 | under 1% |
| Acetone test | 1 | under 1% |
| Passive avoidance | 1 | under 1% |
| Real-time place preference | 1 | under 1% |
Tests named in 30 or more of these papers link to a page on that test with chemogenetics. To count the papers that mention two or more tests together, use the test battery tool.
Papers by year
Animal research papers that mention chemogenetics 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 | 0 |
| 2002 | 0 |
| 2003 | 0 |
| 2004 | 0 |
| 2005 | 0 |
| 2006 | 0 |
| 2007 | 0 |
| 2008 | 0 |
| 2009 | 0 |
| 2010 | 0 |
| 2011 | 0 |
| 2012 | 1 |
| 2013 | 2 |
| 2014 | 5 |
| 2015 | 9 |
| 2016 | 29 |
| 2017 | 32 |
| 2018 | 51 |
| 2019 | 59 |
| 2020 | 70 |
| 2021 | 77 |
| 2022 | 70 |
| 2023 | 94 |
| 2024 | 117 |
| 2025 | 147 |
| 2026 (part year) | 178 |
Disease models in papers that mention chemogenetics
Each bar is one disease model, with how many of the 505 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 505 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
182 of the 505 papers (36%) had NIH funding. NIMH, the National Institute of Mental Health, funded the most, 70 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 chemogenetics and a behavioral test and have the most citations, as counted by NIH's iCite on November 5, 2026.
Nat Commun, 2022. 192 citations.
Neuronal circuitry for recognition memory of object and place in rodent models.
Neurosci Biobehav Rev, 2022. 135 citations.
Nat Commun, 2022. 127 citations.
Mol Psychiatry, 2021. 108 citations.
Dynamics of a disinhibitory prefrontal microcircuit in controlling social competition.
Neuron, 2022. 101 citations.
How we counted
A paper counts here when it is animal research and its title or abstract mentions chemogenetics 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 chemogenetics 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 chemogenetics 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
- AAV vectors 546 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 chemogenetics [Data set]. https://conductscience.com/resources/data/brain-techniques/chemogenetics
BibTeX
@misc{conductscience_chemogenetics_2026,
author = {{ConductScience}},
title = {Behavioral tests with chemogenetics},
year = {2026},
month = nov,
url = {https://conductscience.com/resources/data/brain-techniques/chemogenetics},
note = {Data set, released November 13, 2026},
}Equipment in our store
For studies with chemogenetics, our store sells:
Apparatus for the tests
Our store sells apparatus for all the 10 tests these papers mention most.
