Global trends in neonatal MRI brain neuroimaging research over the last decade: a bibliometric analysis

Neuroimaging plays a central role in the evaluation, treatment, and prognosis of neonates. In recent years, the exploration of the developing brain has been a major focus of research for researchers and clinicians. In this study, we conducted bibliometric and visualization analyses of the related studies in the field of neonatal magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) brain neuroimaging from the past 10 years, and summarized its research status, hotspots, and frontier development trends.

The Web of Science core collection database was used as the literature source from which to retrieve the relevant papers and reviews in the field of neonatal MRI brain neuroimaging published in the Science Citation Index-Expanded from 2013 to 2022. VOSviewer and CiteSpace were used to conduct bibliometric and visualization analyses of the annual publication volume, countries, institutions, journals, authors, co-cited literature, and the overall distribution of keywords.

We retrieved 3,568 papers and reviews published from 2013 to 2022. The number of publications increased during this period. The United States (US) and the United Kingdom were the largest contributors, with the US receiving the highest H-index and number of citations. The institutions that published the most were the University of London and Harvard University. The research mainly focused on cerebral cortex, brain tissue, brain structure network, artificial intelligence algorithm, automatic image segmentation, and premature infants.

This study reveals the research status and hotspots of magnetic resonance imaging in the field of neonatal brain neuroimaging in the past decade, which helps researchers to better understand the research status, hotspots, and frontier development trends.