Bibliometric analysis of hot literature on neural circuit research

Abstract

Numerous brain diseases have been attributed to abnormalities in the connections of neural circuits. Exploration of neural circuits may give enlightenment in treating some intractable brain diseases. Here, we screened all publications on neural circuits in the Web of Science database from 2007 to 2022 and analyzed the research trends through VOSviewer, CiteSpace, Microsoft Excel 2019, and Origin. The findings revealed a consistent upward trend in research on neural circuits during this period. The United States emerged as the leading contributor, followed by China and Japan. Among the top 10 institutions with the largest number of publications, both the United States and China have a strong presence. Notably, the Chinese Academy of Sciences demonstrated the highest publication output, closely followed by Stanford University. In terms of influential authors, Karl Deisseroth stood out as one of the most prominent investigators. During this period, the majority of publications and citations on neural circuit research were found in highly influential journals including NEURON, NATURE JOURNAL OF NEUROSCIENCE, and so forth. Keyword clustering analysis highlighted the increasing focus on neural circuits and photogenetics in neuroscience research, and the reconstruction of neural circuits has emerged as a crucial research direction in brain science. In conclusion, over the past 15 years, the increasing high-quality publications have facilitated research development of neural circuits, indicating a promising prospect for investigations on neurological and psychiatric diseases.

Keywords: bibliometric analysis; functional connectivity; neural circuits; neurological brain diseases; publication output.

Figure 1

Flowchart of the screening process of neural loop research. TS, terms; WOSCC, Web of Science Core Collection. [Color figure can be viewed at wileyonlinelibrary.com]

Figure 2

Global trend and continuous growth rate of annual publications related to neural circuits from 2007 to 2022. [Color figure can be viewed at wileyonlinelibrary.com]

Figure 3

Contribution of countries/regions to the research field of neural circuits. (A) A world map of the global distribution in the field of neural loop research. According to the number of published articles, different countries are represented by different colors. (B) The distribution and international cooperation of countries/regions involved in neural circuit research. The thickness of lines reflects the frequency of cooperation; the thicker the line, the stronger the cooperation. (C) The total number of publications, the average citation of each item and the H index of countries that have contributed more than 15 publications in this field. (D) The increasing trend of the number of publications in countries/regions that have contributed more than 15 publications to the study of neural circuits from 2007 to 2022. [Correction added on 1 March 2024, after first online publication: In the preceding sentence, the word “methamphetamine” was replaced with “neural circuits” in this version.] [Color figure can be viewed at wileyonlinelibrary.com]

Figure 4

The contribution of various institutions in the research field of neural circuits. (A) The total number of publications, average citation and H index of institutions that have contributed at least 15 papers in this field. (B) Mapping of coauthored analysis among the 47 most productive institutions in neural loop research. Each node represents an institution, and the node size represents the number of publications. The connection between nodes indicates cooperation, and the thickness of lines indicates strength (weight on total link strength). [Color figure can be viewed at wileyonlinelibrary.com]

Figure 5

Contribution of journals in the field of neural circuit research. (A) From 2007 to 2022, the publishing volume of the top 10 productive journals of neural loop research increased. (B) The top 10 journal types with the largest number of publications on neural circuit research. (C) Double‐map superposition of journals on methamphetamine research generated by Citespace. These labels represent different research topics covered by journals. The citing journals are on the left, and the other side of the map represents the cited journals. Lines with different colors correspond to different paths of reference, starting from the reference map and ending at the reference map. The main cited journals and cited journals are displayed in the red box. [Color figure can be viewed at wileyonlinelibrary.com]

Figure 6

The author's contribution in the field of neural circuit research. (A) The total number of publications of authors who have contributed at least seven articles in this field and the average of each citation. (B) According to VOSviewer, the mapping of coauthored analysis among the authors who have published at least 4 papers on neural loop research. Each node represents an author, and the node size represents the number of publications. [Correction added on 1 March 2024, after first online publication: In the preceding sentence, the word “institution” was replaced with “author” in this version.] The connection between nodes indicates cooperation, and the thickness of lines indicates strength (weight on total link strength). [Color figure can be viewed at wileyonlinelibrary.com]

Figure 7

The contribution of keywords in the field of neural loop research. (A) VOSviewer conducted keyword co‐occurrence analysis on neural circuit research. Different colors indicate keywords in certain category. (B) Superimposed visualization of keyword co‐occurrence analysis. Purple nodes represent earlier keywords, while yellow nodes reflect recent keywords. [Color figure can be viewed at wileyonlinelibrary.com]