Published online Nov 19, 2024. doi: 10.5498/wjp.v14.i11.1755
Revised: July 28, 2024
Accepted: August 2, 2024
Published online: November 19, 2024
Processing time: 187 Days and 16 Hours
Compared with current methods used to assess schizophrenia, near-infrared spectroscopy (NIRS) has the advantages of providing noninvasive and real-time monitoring of functional activities of the brain and providing direct and objective assessment information.
To explore the research field of NIRS in schizophrenia from the perspective of bibliometrics.
The Web of Science Core Collection was used as the search tool, and the last search date was April 21, 2024. Bibliometric indicators, such as the numbers of publications and citations, were recorded. Bibliometrix and VOS viewer were used for visualization analysis.
A total of 355 articles from 105 journals were included in the analysis. The overall trend of the number of research publications increased. Schizophrenia Research was identified as an influential journal in the field. Kasai K was one of the most influential and productive authors in this area of research. The University of Tokyo and Japan had the highest scientific output for an institution and a country, respectively. The top ten keywords were “schizophrenia”, “activation”, “near-infrared spectroscopy”, “verbal fluency task”, “cortex”, “brain, performance”, “working-memory”, “brain activation”, and “prefrontal cortex”.
Our study reveals the evolution of knowledge and emerging trends in the field of NIRS in schizophrenia. the research focus is shifting from underlying disease characteristics to more in-depth studies of brain function and physiological mechanisms.
Core Tip: The assessment scale is often used to evaluate patients with schizophrenia in clinical practice, but there are still some limitations of the scale due to its dependence on subjective judgment and its inability to directly observe brain function, as well as the difficulty in accounting for individual differences among patients. Near-infrared spectroscopy (NIRS) has been used with increasing frequency in clinical settings over the past 20 years. However, there is a lack of bibliometric analysis of NIRS in schizophrenia. Our study demonstrates the evolution of knowledge and emerging trends in the field of NIRS for patients with schizophrenia through the use of bibliometric methods and visualization tools.