Bibliometric Visualization Analysis of Microbiome-Gut-Brain Axis from 2004 to 2020

Abstract

BACKGROUND The microbiome-gut-brain axis (MGBA) is the biochemical signal of the digestive tract and central nervous system. MGBA disorders have been increasingly involved in the pathological process of neurological diseases. This study aimed to investigate the research hot spots of MGBA from 2004 to 2020. MATERIAL AND METHODS Using bibliometric analysis from the Web of Science Core Collection (WOSCC) database, 3993 documents on the MGBA were retrieved and visual analysis was conducted. RESULTS The MGBA has received attention worldwide and will continue to be a research hot spot. Emerging research organizations and scholars of the MGBA and the research of John F. Cryan and colleagues from Ireland in the MGBA have been recognized by many scholars. However, the research of Chinese scholars and organizations appeared to have less impact due to lack of research innovation and collaboration with other countries/regions. Keyword analysis showed that neuroinflammation was a hot spot and that eminent scholars had begun to work in the field of MGBA. CONCLUSIONS This work provided an overall view of the literature on the MGBA worldwide, and the analysis provided a comprehensive overview of MGBA research. It further revealed the interaction between the gut microbiota (eg, Akkermansia, Parabacteroides) and the specific regulatory network of the gut microbiota and metabolites, neuroinflammation, and neural networks, which can facilitate the development of effective treatment strategies using microbiota for targeting neuroinflammation and conducting large-scale clinical trials of neurological diseases.

Figure 1

Distribution of publications of the microbiome-gut-brain axis (MGBA) from 2004 to 2020, by the GraphPad Prism (version 5.0; University of California San Diego, San Diego, CA, USA).

Figure 2

The documents on the microbiome-gut-brain axis (MGBA) in different countries/regions. (A) Map of the cooperation between 34 countries by the VOSviewer. (B) The cooperation between the United States and Ireland. Different colors indicate clusters of collaboration between countries, the size of the circle indicates citations to the publication, and the thickness of the line indicates the extent of collaboration. The network visualization was performed by VOSviewer (version 1.6.15; Centre for Science and Technology Studies, Leiden University, the Netherlands).

Figure 3

Co-author analysis of organizations. (A) The co-authorship of organizations showed the collaboration of University College Cork and Zhejiang Univ. (B) The average published year showed the recent active organization, Central South University. The color shows the average published year. The network visualization was performed by VOSviewer (1.6.15 versions; Centre for Science and Technology Studies, Leiden University, the Netherlands).

Figure 4

Co-authorship analysis of authors. (A) Map of the cooperation between 338 authors by the VOSviewer. (B) Analysis of the authors who cooperated with John F. Cryan or Emeran A. Mayer. Different colors indicate clusters of collaboration between authors, the size of the circle indicates citations to the publication, and the thickness of the line indicates the size of collaboration. The network visualization was performed by VOSviewer (1.6.15 versions; Centre for Science and Technology Studies, Leiden University, the Netherlands).

Figure 5

Co-occurrence analysis of author keywords. (A) Map of the relevant author keywords of microbiota-gut-brain-axis, inflammation, or probiotics. (B) The average published year shows the relationship of neuroinflammation between other author keywords. The color shows the average published year. The network visualization was performed by VOSviewer (1.6.15 versions; Centre for Science and Technology Studies, Leiden University, the Netherlands). (C) Top 20 keywords with the strongest citation bursts by Citespace (5.7. R3 versions; College of Information Science and Technology, Leisel University, USA). ɣ: 1.0; minimum duration: 2.