Research data · Brain technique
Intrathecal injection
From 2021 to 2025, 257 animal research papers mentioned intrathecal injection and at least one behavioral test.
That is 32% fewer than the 380 papers of 2011 to 2015. Between the same two periods, all the animal research papers that mention any of the 90 tests we count rose 22%. The 2021 to 2025 count may run low because of a dip in PubMed's indexing, explained under the year chart.
The tests mentioned with intrathecal injection
The von Frey test appears in 50% of these papers and in 4.0% of all 32,277 papers that mention a test. That makes it 13 times as common in this research. Each bar is one test, with how many of the 257 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 36 tests these papers mention
| Test | Papers | Share of the 257 papers |
|---|---|---|
| Von Frey test | 128 | 50% |
| Tail flick | 32 | 12% |
| Hot plate | 25 | 10% |
| Formalin test | 22 | 9% |
| Rotarod | 18 | 7% |
| Acetone test | 14 | 5% |
| Gait analysis | 14 | 5% |
| Hargreaves plantar test | 13 | 5% |
| Open field | 12 | 5% |
| Conditioned place preference | 10 | 4% |
| Cold plate | 10 | 4% |
| Forced swim test | 7 | 3% |
| Novel object recognition | 5 | 2% |
| Grip strength | 5 | 2% |
| Paw pressure test | 4 | 2% |
| Morris water maze | 4 | 2% |
| Treadmill running | 4 | 2% |
| Grid walking (foot fault) | 3 | 1% |
| Self-administration | 3 | 1% |
| Y-maze | 3 | 1% |
| Elevated plus maze | 3 | 1% |
| Beam walking | 3 | 1% |
| Wheel running | 2 | 1% |
| Sucrose preference test | 2 | 1% |
| Ladder rung walking | 2 | 1% |
| Barnes maze | 2 | 1% |
| Fear conditioning | 2 | 1% |
| Self-grooming | 1 | under 1% |
| Prepulse inhibition and acoustic startle | 1 | under 1% |
| Writhing test | 1 | under 1% |
| Object location test | 1 | under 1% |
| Light-dark box | 1 | under 1% |
| Tail suspension test | 1 | under 1% |
| Nest building | 1 | under 1% |
| Wire hang and inverted grid | 1 | under 1% |
| Adhesive removal test | 1 | under 1% |
Tests named in 30 or more of these papers link to a page on that test with intrathecal injection. To count the papers that mention two or more tests together, use the test battery tool.
Papers by year
Animal research papers that mention intrathecal injection 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 | 76 |
| 2002 | 56 |
| 2003 | 84 |
| 2004 | 74 |
| 2005 | 96 |
| 2006 | 61 |
| 2007 | 47 |
| 2008 | 58 |
| 2009 | 64 |
| 2010 | 68 |
| 2011 | 85 |
| 2012 | 76 |
| 2013 | 85 |
| 2014 | 66 |
| 2015 | 68 |
| 2016 | 71 |
| 2017 | 44 |
| 2018 | 56 |
| 2019 | 66 |
| 2020 | 79 |
| 2021 | 67 |
| 2022 | 54 |
| 2023 | 43 |
| 2024 | 47 |
| 2025 | 46 |
| 2026 (part year) | 42 |
Papers that mention intrathecal injection and a test fell from 67 in 2021 to 43 in 2023, then rose to 46 in 2025. Part of this dip may come from PubMed's indexing rather than from fewer studies. We take a paper's species from PubMed's indexing when the indexing names one. 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.
Disease models in papers that mention intrathecal injection
Each bar is one disease model, with how many of the 257 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 257 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
32 of the 257 papers (12%) had NIH funding. NINDS, the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke, funded the most, 20 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 intrathecal injection and a behavioral test and have the most citations, as counted by NIH's iCite on November 5, 2026. We show four of the five most cited papers and leave out one because of words in its title.
J Neuroinflammation, 2021. 89 citations.
J Neuroinflammation, 2022. 78 citations.
TRPM3 Channels Play Roles in Heat Hypersensitivity and Spontaneous Pain after Nerve Injury.
J Neurosci, 2021. 62 citations.
Pain Physician, 2022. 51 citations.
How we counted
A paper counts here when it is animal research and its title or abstract mentions intrathecal injection 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 intrathecal injection 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 intrathecal injection 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
- Chemogenetics (DREADDs) 505 papers
- Optogenetics 443 papers
- In vivo electrophysiology 335 papers
- Intranasal delivery 299 papers
- EEG and ECoG 265 papers
- Fiber photometry 177 papers
- Transcranial stimulation 152 papers
- Microdialysis 133 papers
How to cite
APA
ConductScience. (2026, November 13). Behavioral tests with intrathecal injection [Data set]. https://conductscience.com/resources/data/brain-techniques/intrathecal
BibTeX
@misc{conductscience_intrathecal_2026,
author = {{ConductScience}},
title = {Behavioral tests with intrathecal injection},
year = {2026},
month = nov,
url = {https://conductscience.com/resources/data/brain-techniques/intrathecal},
note = {Data set, released November 13, 2026},
}Equipment in our store
For studies with intrathecal injection, our store sells:
Apparatus for the tests
Our store sells apparatus for eight of the 10 tests these papers mention most, all but the formalin test and the acetone test.
