Diffusion Magnetic Resonance Imaging and Human Reward System Research: A Bibliometric Analysis and Visualisation of Current Research Trends

TL;DR

This study maps global research trends in diffusion MRI and human reward system studies, highlighting top countries, authors, journals, and research topics.

Contribution

The novelty lies in providing a bibliometric and visual analysis of dMRI's role in human reward system research, identifying collaboration patterns and hot topics.

Findings

Publications in dMRI and reward research increased notably in 2020 and 2022.

Top contributors include the USA, China, and European countries, with key authors from Switzerland, Germany, and the UK.

Prominent journals include Neuroimage and Frontiers in Human Neuroscience, with 'diffusion MRI' and 'depression' as top keywords.

Abstract

The human reward system has been extensively studied using neuroimaging. This bibliometric analysis aimed to determine the global trend in diffusion magnetic resonance imaging (dMRI) and human reward research in terms of the number of documents, the most active countries and their collaborating countries, the top journals and institutions, the most prominent authors and most cited articles, and research hotspots.

The research datasets were acquired from the Scopus database. The search terms used were ‘reward’ AND ‘human’ AND ‘diffusion imaging’ OR ‘diffusion tensor imaging’ OR ‘diffusion MRI’ OR ‘diffusion-weighted imaging’ OR ‘tractography’ in the abstract, article title and keywords. A total of 336 publications were analysed using Harzing’s Publish or Perish and VOSviewer software.

The results revealed an upward trend in the number of publications with the highest number of articles in 2020 and 2022. Most publications were limited to countries, authors, and institutions in the USA, China and Europe. Bracht, Coenen, Wiest, Federspiel and Feng were among the top authors from Switzerland, Germany and the UK. Neuroimage, Neuroimage Clinical, Frontiers in Human Neuroscience, Human Brain Mapping, and the Journal of Neuroscience were the top journals. Among the top articles, six were reviews and four were original articles, while the top keywords in human reward research were ‘diffusion MRI’, ‘adolescence’, ‘depression’ and ‘reward-related brain areas’.

These findings may serve as researchers’ references to find collaborative authors, relevant journals, cooperative countries/institutions, and hot topics related to dMRI and reward research.

Figures