Mapping three decades of consciousness research in neuroscience: a scientometric synthesis of intellectual evolution and emerging frontiers

Over the past three decades, consciousness research in neuroscience has expanded into a broad and increasingly diverse field. Despite significant progress, a quantitative understanding of how these research areas have collectively evolved has remained limited. In this study, we conducted a large-scale scientometric analysis of consciousness research in neuroscience based on 22,836 publications and 639,975 cited references retrieved from the Web of Science Core Collection spanning 1998-2025. We identified three major research paths: neural correlates of conscious contents and states, internal awareness and self-consciousness, and integrative approaches bridging these two paths. Emerging hotspots included neural mechanisms of consciousness, subjective experience, disorders of consciousness (DoC), and interoception. Despite increasing boundary-spanning research across different areas, bibliometric connections between DoC and other major topics, particularly subjective experience and interoception, remain comparatively sparse. These findings provide a field-level synthesis of consciousness research in neuroscience, offering a quantitative framework for understanding its development and emerging research directions.