Pain and Transcranial Direct Current Stimulation: A Bibliometric Analysis.

Pain management is a constant struggle. Transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) is a neuromodulation technique with proved efficacy in chronic pain. The aim of the study is to provide a bibliometric perspective regarding articles on pain and tDCS. Having a visualized and systematically overview of publication trends, new research ideas could arise for clinicians. Articles on pain and tDCS were retrieved from Web of Science database. Using the R software version 4.1.2 and the "biblioshiny" R package, a quantitative and statistical analysis was performed. Time trend, number of publications, journals and authors, author country and institution, as well as citations and references were visualized. A total of 554 publication fulfilled the criteria and were analyzed. The scientific production has been increasing over time with an annual growth of 17.1%. Brain Stimulation Journal and Journal of Pain are the leading journals regarding articles and citations. Fregni F. (83 articles) is the most prolific researcher with important authorship in the field. USA is the country with most authors involved in the topic (558 authors), whereas the leading institution is represented by Universidade Federal Rio Grande Do Sul (84 articles). Lefaucheur JP. article from 2017 has the maximum citations, while keywords in trend in the last three years are osteoarthritis and low back pain. This is the first bibliometric study that reflects the trends of tDCS in the field of pain. Journals as well as authors are limited and clustered. However the number of articles as well as number of citations are constantly increasing, supporting the idea that this is an emerging topic. The information obtained could be an important practical basis for future pain management research.

Chiriac VF ，Leucuța DC ，Moșoiu DV 《Journal of Pain Research》

Bibliometric and visual analysis of transcranial direct current stimulation in the web of science database from 2000 to 2022 via CiteSpace.

This study aimed to evaluate the current research hotspots and development tendency of Transcranial Direct Current Stimulation (tDCS) in the field of neurobiology from a bibliometric perspective by providing visualized information to scientists and clinicians. Publications related to tDCS published between 2000 and 2022 were retrieved from the Web of Science Core Collection (WOSCC) on May 5, 2022. Bibliometric features including the number of publications and citations, citation frequency, H-index, journal impact factors, and journal citation reports were summarized using Microsoft Office Excel. Co-authorship, citation, co-citation, and co-occurrence analyses among countries, institutions, authors, co-authors, journals, publications, references, and keywords were analyzed and visualized using CiteSpace (version 6.1.R3). A total of 4,756 publications on tDCS fulfilled the criteria we designed and then were extracted from the WOSCC. The United States (1,190 publications, 25.02%) and Harvard University (185 publications, 3.89%) were the leading contributors among all the countries and institutions, respectively. NITSCHE MA and FREGNI F, two key researchers, have made great achievements in tDCS. Brain Stimulation (306 publications) had the highest number of publications relevant to tDCS and the highest number of citations (4,042 times). In terms of potential hotspots, we observed through reference co-citation analysis timeline viewer related to tDCS that "depression"#0, "Sensorimotor network"#10, "working memory"#11, and "Transcranial magnetic stimulation"#9 might be the future research hotspots, while keywords with the strong burst and still ongoing were "intensity" (2018-2022), "impairment" (2020-2022), "efficacy" (2020-2022), and "guideline" (2020-2022). This was the first-ever study of peer-reviewed publications relative to tDCS using several scientometric and visual analytic methods to quantitatively and qualitatively reveal the current research status and trends in the field of tDCS. Through the bibliometric method, we gained an in-depth understanding of the current research status and development trend on tDCS. Our research and analysis results might provide some practical sources for academic scholars and clinicians.

Sun W ，Song J ，Dong X ，Kang X ，He B ，Zhao W ，Li Z ，Feng Z ，Chen X ... -  《Frontiers in Human Neuroscience》

Trends of Repetitive Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation From 2009 to 2018: A Bibliometric Analysis.

Repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation (rTMS) technology, which is amongst the most used non-invasive brain stimulation techniques currently available, has developed rapidly from 2009 to 2018. However, reports on the trends of rTMS using bibliometric analysis are rare. The goal of the present bibliometric analysis is to analyze and visualize the trends of rTMS, including general (publication patterns) and emerging trends (research frontiers), over the last 10 years by using the visual analytic tool CiteSpace V. Publications related to rTMS from 2009 to 2018 were retrieved from the Web of Science (WoS) database, including 2,986 peer-reviewed articles/reviews. Active authors, journals, institutions, and countries were identified by WoS and visualized by CiteSpace V, which could also detect burst changes to identify emerging trends. GraphPad Prism 8 was used to analyze the time trend of annual publication outputs. The USA ranked first in this field. Pascual-Leone A (author A), Fitzgerald PB (author B), George MS (author C), Lefaucheur JP (author D), and Fregni F (author E) made great contributions to this field of study. The most prolific institution to publish rTMS-related publications in the last decade was the University of Toronto. The journal Brain Stimulation published most papers. Lefaucheur et al.'s paper in 2014, and the keyword "sham controlled trial" showed the strongest citation bursts by the end of 2018, which indicates increased attention to the underlying work, thereby indicating the research frontiers. This study reveals the publication patterns and emerging trends of rTMS based on the records published from 2009 to 2018. The insights obtained have reference values for the future research and application of rTMS.

Zheng KY ，Dai GY ，Lan Y ，Wang XQ ... -  《Frontiers in Neuroscience》

Research hotspots and trends on spinal cord stimulation for pain treatment: a two-decade bibliometric analysis.

Chronic pain poses a significant social burden. Spinal cord stimulation (SCS) is considered to be the most promising treatment for refractory pain. The aim of this study was to summarize the current research hotspots on SCS for pain treatment during the past two decades and to predict the future research trends by bibliometric analysis. The literature over the last two decades (2002-2022) which was related to SCS in pain treatment was obtained from the Web of Science Core Collection. Bibliometric analyses were conducted based on the following aspects: (1) Annual publication and citation trends; (2) Annual publication changes of different publication types; (3) Publications and citations/co-citations of different country/institution/journal/author; (4) Citations/co-citation and citation burst analysis of different literature; and (5) Co-occurrence, cluster, thematic map, trend topics, and citation burst analysis of different keywords. (6) Comparison between the United States and Europe. All analyses were performed on CiteSpace, VOSviewer, and R bibliometrix package. A total of 1,392 articles were included in this study, with an increasing number of publications and citations year by year. The most highly published type of literature was clinical trial. United States was the country with the most publications and citations; Johns Hopkins University was the institution with the most publications; NEUROMODULATION published the most papers; the most published author was Linderoth B; and the most cited paper was published in the PAIN by Kumar K in 2007. The most frequently occurring keywords were "spinal cord stimulation," "neuropathic pain," and "chronic pain," etc. The positive effect of SCS on pain treatment has continued to arouse the enthusiasm of researchers in this field. Future research should focus on the development of new technologies, innovative applications, and clinical trials for SCS. This study might facilitate researchers to comprehensively understand the overall perspective, research hotspots, and future development trends in this field, as well as seek collaboration with other researchers.

Yang S ，Zhong S ，Fan Y ，Zhu Y ，Xu N ，Liao Y ，Fan G ，Liao X ，He S ... -  《Frontiers in Neuroscience》

Research Hotspots and Frontiers of Transcranial Direct Current Stimulation in Stroke: A Bibliometric Analysis.

Li C ，Tu S ，Xu S ，Zhang Y ，Yan Z ，Jia J ，Tian S ... -  《Brain Sciences》