Fig. 3: Graphical representation of behavioural domains commonly investigated in preclinical models of Schizophrenia.

The sensorimotor assay described as the prepulse inhibition test makes up the single most cited test in preclinical schizophrenia research. Other behavioural assays include locomotor activity, and emotionality-related behaviour in the open field test, elevated plus maze, forced swim test, sucrose preference test, tail suspension test and foot shock aversion test. Working, spatial and reference memory contribute to the majority of behavioural assays designed to test memory that are cited by preclinical research, with the Morris water maze, cheeseboard maze, radial arm maze, T maze, Y maze and novel object recognition the most commonly cited. Reinforcement-learning tasks, which make the most contact with the clinical literature, comprise only 12% of citations, which includes latent inhibition, reversal learning, reinforcement learning and intradimensional/extradimensional set-shift tasks that have been directly tested in people with schizophrenia.