neuroscience research papers

Most impactful neuroscience research

A study of the 100 most-cited neuroscience articles has revealed that 78 of these papers cover five topics, including neurological disorders, the prefrontal cortex, brain connectivity, brain mapping and methodology studies. The study allows scientists, policy-makers and investors to quickly identify the most-cited articles and impactful research in neuroscience.

Neuroscience research aims to understand neural structure and function, and how this relates to behavior, normal physiological processes and disease. The discipline is growing rapidly, with scientists publishing more articles each year. As researchers learn more and develop new techniques, the number of research topics grows, and it can be difficult to get a handle on the field as a whole.

"It can be difficult for newcomers to the neuroscience field or clinicians to identify the major research topics," explains Andy Wai Kan Yeung of the University of Hong Kong, lead author on the study, which was recently published in Frontiers in Human Neuroscience . Yeung and colleagues set out to identify and analyze the 100 top-cited (referenced by other articles) papers in neuroscience.

"The aim was to provide a starting point for people conducting literature searches, so that they could quickly and easily identify the most cited work in the whole field," says Yeung. In theory, high numbers of citations should reveal articles with a big impact in the field, and comparing citations can be an impartial and convenient way to find papers that have made a splash.

The team searched for neuroscience manuscripts on the Web of Science database, which lists citation data for articles dating to 1945. They identified and analyzed the 100 most-cited neuroscience articles and recorded information about each one, including the journals they were published in, research topic and year of publication. They also looked at the impact factor of each respective journal, which, put simply, is the average number of cites an article, in given a journal, receives per year.

The team found that the top 100 articles were published between 1972 and 2009, and the total number of cites for each article ranged from 2,138 to 7,326, with an average of 3,087. Cites were fairly evenly distributed throughout the 100 articles, meaning that no one article, or group of articles, had a disproportionately high number.

However, articles tend to attract more cites over time, with older articles having more time to be cited, while journal impact factors change over time. So, to level the playing field, the researchers also compared adjusted citation counts (the average citation count per year since the article was published) and adjusted journal impact factors (the average impact factor of the journal per year, since the article was published).

Almost half of the journals in the list have long histories, such as Nature and Science, which were established in the late 1800s. The researchers compared some of the most prestigious journals with high impact factors with the other journals on the list. "Adjusted journal impact factor did not have a significant correlation with adjusted citation count," says Yeung. "This was surprising, as it is intuitive to think that important articles published in prestigious journals should have more citations."

When the team grouped the papers in terms of research topic, 78 on the list covered five topics including neurological disorders, the prefrontal cortex, brain connectivity, brain mapping and methodology studies. Papers investigating brain connectivity were quite recent, indicating that this topic has recently increased in popularity and importance.

The study can help anyone interested in identifying the most important neuroscience topics. "Hopefully this study will encourage researchers to look at the identified articles and build on this impactful work," says Yeung.

• Neuroscience
• Brain-Computer Interfaces
• Brain Injury
• Intelligence
• Disorders and Syndromes
• Infant and Preschool Learning
• Alzheimer's
• Brain damage
• Psycholinguistics
• Cognitive neuroscience
• Neurobiology

Story Source:

Materials provided by Frontiers . Note: Content may be edited for style and length.

Journal Reference :

• Andy W. K. Yeung, Tazuko K. Goto, W. Keung Leung. At the Leading Front of Neuroscience: A Bibliometric Study of the 100 Most-Cited Articles . Frontiers in Human Neuroscience , 2017; 11 DOI: 10.3389/fnhum.2017.00363

Cite This Page :

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Collection  04 March 2020

Top 100 in Neuroscience

This collection highlights our most downloaded* neuroscience papers published in 2019. Featuring authors from around the world, these papers feature valuable research from an international community.

* Data obtained from SN Insights which is based on Digital Science’s Dimensions.

Towards reconstructing intelligible speech from the human auditory cortex

• Hassan Akbari
• Bahar Khalighinejad
• Nima Mesgarani

Television viewing and cognitive decline in older age: findings from the English Longitudinal Study of Ageing

• Daisy Fancourt
• Andrew Steptoe

Real life Experience of Medical Cannabis Treatment in Autism: Analysis of Safety and Efficacy

• Lihi Bar-Lev Schleider
• Raphael Mechoulam
• Victor Novack

BrainNet: A Multi-Person Brain-to-Brain Interface for Direct Collaboration Between Brains

• Linxing Jiang
• Andrea Stocco
• Rajesh P. N. Rao

Characterization and prediction of acute and sustained response to psychedelic psilocybin in a mindfulness group retreat

• Lukasz Smigielski
• Michael Kometer
• Franz X. Vollenweider

Decoding the contents and strength of imagery before volitional engagement

• Roger Koenig-Robert
• Joel Pearson

Neural correlates of the DMT experience assessed with multivariate EEG

• Christopher Timmermann
• Leor Roseman
• Robin L. Carhart-Harris

Biosynthesis and Extracellular Concentrations of N,N-dimethyltryptamine (DMT) in Mammalian Brain

• Jon G. Dean
• Tiecheng Liu
• Jimo Borjigin

An experimental study of a virtual reality counselling paradigm using embodied self-dialogue

• Solène Neyret
• Guillem Feixas

Human Mind Control of Rat Cyborg’s Continuous Locomotion with Wireless Brain-to-Brain Interface

• Shaomin Zhang

Non-invasive, Brain-controlled Functional Electrical Stimulation for Locomotion Rehabilitation in Individuals with Paraplegia

• Aurelie Selfslagh
• Solaiman Shokur
• Miguel A. L. Nicolelis

The complexity of understanding others as the evolutionary origin of empathy and emotional contagion

• Fabrizio Mafessoni
• Michael Lachmann

A model-guided dissociation between subcortical and cortical contributions to word recognition

• Mario Braun
• Martin Kronbichler
• Arthur M. Jacobs

White matter microstructure mediates the association between physical fitness and cognition in healthy, young adults

• Stella Martin
• Jonathan Repple

Pulsed Near Infrared Transcranial and Intranasal Photobiomodulation Significantly Modulates Neural Oscillations: a pilot exploratory study

• Reza Zomorrodi
• Genane Loheswaran

Behavior of mice aboard the International Space Station

• April E. Ronca
• Eric L. Moyer
• Ruth K. Globus

Inflammation Predicts Decision-Making Characterized by Impulsivity, Present Focus, and an Inability to Delay Gratification

• Jeffrey Gassen
• Marjorie L. Prokosch
• Sarah E. Hill

Oral selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors activate vagus nerve dependent gut-brain signalling

• Karen-Anne McVey Neufeld
• John Bienenstock
• Paul Forsythe

Maternal and early postnatal immune activation produce sex-specific effects on autism-like behaviors and neuroimmune function in mice

• William A. Carlezon Jr
• Kwang-Soo Kim

Novel findings from 2,838 Adult Brains on Sex Differences in Gray Matter Brain Volume

• Martin Lotze
• Martin Domin
• Nicola Neumann

Dietary emulsifiers consumption alters anxiety-like and social-related behaviors in mice in a sex-dependent manner

• Mary K. Holder
• Nicole V. Peters
• Geert J. de Vries

Predicting Alzheimer’s disease progression using multi-modal deep learning approach

• Kwangsik Nho
• for Alzheimer’s Disease Neuroimaging Initiative

The Bivalent Rewarding and Aversive properties of Δ 9 -tetrahydrocannabinol are Mediated Through Dissociable Opioid Receptor Substrates and Neuronal Modulation Mechanisms in Distinct Striatal Sub-Regions

• Christopher Norris
• Hanna J. Szkudlarek
• Steven R. Laviolette

Neuroinflammation induced by lipopolysaccharide causes cognitive impairment in mice

Sucrose intake lowers μ-opioid and dopamine D2/3 receptor availability in porcine brain

• Michael Winterdahl
• Anne M. Landau

Alpha-synuclein is a DNA binding protein that modulates DNA repair with implications for Lewy body disorders

• Allison J. Schaser
• Valerie R. Osterberg
• Vivek K. Unni

Life without a brain: Neuroradiological and behavioral evidence of neuroplasticity necessary to sustain brain function in the face of severe hydrocephalus

• C. F. Ferris
• P. Kulkarni

Principled BCI Decoder Design and Parameter Selection Using a Feedback Control Model

• Francis R. Willett
• Daniel R. Young
• A. Bolu Ajiboye

Misophonia is associated with altered brain activity in the auditory cortex and salience network

• Arjan Schröder
• Guido van Wingen
• Damiaan Denys

Awakening effects of blue-enriched morning light exposure on university students’ physiological and subjective responses

• Kyungah Choi
• Cheong Shin
• Hyeon-Jeong Suk

Cannabinoids Exacerbate Alcohol Teratogenesis by a CB1-Hedgehog Interaction

• Eric W. Fish
• Laura B. Murdaugh
• Scott E. Parnell

Learning Unicycling Evokes Manifold Changes in Gray and White Matter Networks Related to Motor and Cognitive Functions

• Bernhard Weber
• Karl Koschutnig
• Andreas Fink

Music synchronizes brainwaves across listeners with strong effects of repetition, familiarity and training

• Jens Madsen
• Elizabeth Hellmuth Margulis
• Lucas C. Parra

The Amazon rain forest plant Uncaria tomentosa (cat’s claw) and its specific proanthocyanidin constituents are potent inhibitors and reducers of both brain plaques and tangles

• Alan D. Snow
• Gerardo M. Castillo
• Lesley Larsen

Amido-bridged nucleic acid (AmNA)-modified antisense oligonucleotides targeting α-synuclein as a novel therapy for Parkinson’s disease

• Takuya Uehara
• Chi-Jing Choong
• Hideki Mochizuki

The Impact of Shift Work on Sleep, Alertness and Performance in Healthcare Workers

• Saranea Ganesan
• Michelle Magee
• Tracey L. Sletten

Modernization of Golgi staining techniques for high-resolution, 3-dimensional imaging of individual neurons

• Katlijn Vints
• Dorien Vandael
• Natalia V. Gounko

A blood-based signature of cerebrospinal fluid A β 1–42 status

• Benjamin Goudey
• Bowen J. Fung
• Alzheimer’s Disease Neuroimaging Initiative

Remyelination promoting therapies in multiple sclerosis animal models: a systematic review and meta-analysis

• Carlijn R. Hooijmans
• Martin Hlavica
• Benjamin V. Ineichen

Brain activity sustaining the modulation of pain by empathetic comments

• I. Faillenot

Growth Hormone Improves Nerve Regeneration, Muscle Re-innervation, and Functional Outcomes After Chronic Denervation Injury

• Joseph Lopez
• Gerald Brandacher

Long-term exercise training improves memory in middle-aged men and modulates peripheral levels of BDNF and Cathepsin B

• Adrián De la Rosa
• Elisabeth Solana
• Mari Carmen Gomez-Cabrera

Respiratory influence on cerebrospinal fluid flow – a computational study based on long-term intracranial pressure measurements

• Vegard Vinje
• Geir Ringstad
• Kent-Andre Mardal

The neurophysiological correlates of religious chanting

• Junling Gao
• Hang Kin Leung
• Hin Hung Sik

Apparent Effects of Opioid Use on Neural Responses to Reward in Chronic Pain

• Katherine T. Martucci
• Kelly H. MacNiven
• Sean C. Mackey

The effects of chiropractic spinal manipulation on central processing of tonic pain - a pilot study using standardized low-resolution brain electromagnetic tomography (sLORETA)

• Muhammad Samran Navid
• Heidi Haavik

Potentially repurposable drugs for schizophrenia identified from its interactome

• Kalyani B. Karunakaran
• Srilakshmi Chaparala
• Madhavi K. Ganapathiraju

Spiking Neural Network Modelling Approach Reveals How Mindfulness Training Rewires the Brain

• Zohreh Doborjeh
• Maryam Doborjeh
• Alex Sumich

Machine learning accurately classifies age of toddlers based on eye tracking

• Kirsten A. Dalrymple
• Jed T. Elison

Topography and behavioral relevance of the global signal in the human brain

• Taylor Bolt
• Lucina Q. Uddin

Sleep deprivation and its effects on communication during individual and collaborative tasks

• Benjamin C. Holding
• Tina Sundelin
• John Axelsson

DeNeRD: high-throughput detection of neurons for brain-wide analysis with deep learning

• Asfandyar Sheikh
• Theofanis Karayannis

Prenatal Allergen Exposure Perturbs Sexual Differentiation and Programs Lifelong Changes in Adult Social and Sexual Behavior

• Kathryn M. Lenz
• Lindsay A. Pickett
• Margaret M. McCarthy

Rapid Brain Responses to Familiar vs. Unfamiliar Music – an EEG and Pupillometry study

• Robert Jagiello
• Ulrich Pomper
• Maria Chait

A novel kit for early diagnosis of Alzheimer’s disease using a fluorescent nanoparticle imaging

• Jun Sung Park
• Sang Tae Kim
• Myeong Ok Kim

A quantitative analysis of the contribution of melanopsin to brightness perception

• Masahiko Yamakawa
• Sei-ichi Tsujimura
• Katsunori Okajima

Synapse loss and progress of Alzheimer’s disease -A network model

Integrated Cognitive Assessment: Speed and Accuracy of Visual Processing as a Reliable Proxy to Cognitive Performance

• Seyed-Mahdi Khaligh-Razavi
• Sina Habibi
• Chris Kalafatis

Rosmarinic acid suppresses Alzheimer’s disease development by reducing amyloid β aggregation by increasing monoamine secretion

• Tomoki Hase
• Syun Shishido
• Shoko Kobayashi

Orangutans show active voicing through a membranophone

• Adriano R. Lameira
• Robert W. Shumaker

Pharmacokinetic and pharmacodynamic actions of clozapine-N-oxide, clozapine, and compound 21 in DREADD-based chemogenetics in mice

• Martin Jendryka
• Monika Palchaudhuri
• Anton Pekcec

Novel Method for Rapid Assessment of Cognitive Impairment Using High-Performance Eye-Tracking Technology

• Akane Oyama
• Shuko Takeda
• Ryuichi Morishita

pyPhotometry: Open source Python based hardware and software for fiber photometry data acquisition

• Thomas Akam
• Mark E. Walton

Characterisation of nonlinear receptive fields of visual neurons by convolutional neural network

• Jumpei Ukita
• Takashi Yoshida
• Kenichi Ohki

Craniobot: A computer numerical controlled robot for cranial microsurgeries

• Leila Ghanbari
• Mathew L. Rynes
• Suhasa B. Kodandaramaiah

Early postnatal development of pyramidal neurons across layers of the mouse medial prefrontal cortex

• Eline van Hugte
• Rhiannon M. Meredith

Skeletal descriptions of shape provide unique perceptual information for object recognition

• Vladislav Ayzenberg
• Stella F. Lourenco

Sensory sensitivity as a link between concussive traumatic brain injury and PTSD

• Ann N. Hoffman
• Michael S. Fanselow

Imaging local brain activity of multiple freely moving mice sharing the same environment

• Shigenori Inagaki
• Masakazu Agetsuma
• Takeharu Nagai

Lower Attentional Skills predict increased exploratory foraging patterns

• Charlotte Van den Driessche
• Françoise Chevrier
• Jérôme Sackur

Genetic analyses of early-onset Alzheimer’s disease using next generation sequencing

• Vo Van Giau
• Eva Bagyinszky
• Sang Yun Kim

Effects of Relaxing Music on Healthy Sleep

• Maren Jasmin Cordi
• Sandra Ackermann
• Björn Rasch

Alterations in Brain Structure and Amplitude of Low-frequency after 8 weeks of Mindfulness Meditation Training in Meditation-Naïve Subjects

• Chuan-Chih Yang
• Alfonso Barrós-Loscertales
• Martin Walter

Gamma tACS over the temporal lobe increases the occurrence of Eureka! moments

• Emiliano Santarnecchi
• Giulia Sprugnoli
• Simone Rossi

Optimized CRISPR/Cas9-mediated in vivo genome engineering applicable to monitoring dynamics of endogenous proteins in the mouse neural tissues

• Takahiko Matsuda
• Izumi Oinuma

SOD1-positive aggregate accumulation in the CNS predicts slower disease progression and increased longevity in a mutant SOD1 mouse model of ALS

• James P. Phelan
• Fernando G. Vieira

Multi-step planning of eye movements in visual search

• David Hoppe
• Constantin A. Rothkopf

To jump or not to jump - The Bereitschaftspotential required to jump into 192-meter abyss

• L. G. Cohen
• S. R. Soekadar

Data-Driven Subtyping of Parkinson’s Disease Using Longitudinal Clinical Records: A Cohort Study

• Jingyuan Chou

Memantine prodrug as a new agent for Alzheimer’s Disease

• Simona Sestito
• Simona Daniele
• Simona Rapposelli

Ultrasonication-based rapid amplification of α-synuclein aggregates in cerebrospinal fluid

• Keita Kakuda
• Kensuke Ikenaka

The ketogenic diet in children 3 years of age or younger: a 10-year single-center experience

• Alexandra Shaw
• Douglas R. Nordli Jr.

Stratification of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis patients: a crowdsourcing approach

• Robert Kueffner
• Gustavo Stolovitzky

Human herpesvirus infections and dementia or mild cognitive impairment: a systematic review and meta-analysis

• Charlotte Warren-Gash
• Harriet J. Forbes
• Liam Smeeth

Neurocognitive Signatures of Naturalistic Reading of Scientific Texts: A Fixation-Related fMRI Study

• Chun-Ting Hsu
• Roy Clariana

Testing a Cognitive Control Model of Human Intelligence

• Alfredo Spagna

Single-Cell Quantification of mRNA Expression in The Human Brain

• Sarah Jolly
• Verena Lang
• Ernest Palomer

Fourth finger dependence of high-functioning autism spectrum disorder in multi-digit force coordination

• Shunta Togo
• Takashi Itahashi
• Hiroshi Imamizu

Bidirectional, Daily Temporal Associations between Sleep and Physical Activity in Adolescents

• Lindsay Master
• Russell T. Nye
• Orfeu M. Buxton

Early alterations in a mouse model of Rett syndrome: the GABA developmental shift is abolished at birth

• N. Lozovaya

Astrocytic endfeet re-cover blood vessels after removal by laser ablation

• Hideaki Kubotera
• Hiroko Ikeshima-Kataoka
• Takafumi Inoue

A Spiking Neural Network Model of Depth from Defocus for Event-based Neuromorphic Vision

• Germain Haessig
• Xavier Berthelon
• Ryad Benosman

Clinical and laboratory features of anti-MAG neuropathy without monoclonal gammopathy

• Elba Pascual-Goñi
• Lorena Martín-Aguilar
• Luis Querol

A distinctive DNA methylation pattern in insufficient sleep

• Alexandra Lahtinen
• Sampsa Puttonen
• Tiina Paunio

Resting-state prefrontal EEG biomarkers in correlation with MMSE scores in elderly individuals

• Jungmi Choi
• Jaeuk U. Kim

Engineering a 3D functional human peripheral nerve in vitro using the Nerve-on-a-Chip platform

• Anup D. Sharma
• Laurie McCoy
• Michael J. Moore

Molecular layer interneurons shape the spike activity of cerebellar Purkinje cells

• Amanda M. Brown
• Marife Arancillo
• Roy V. Sillitoe

Attempted Arm and Hand Movements can be Decoded from Low-Frequency EEG from Persons with Spinal Cord Injury

• Patrick Ofner
• Andreas Schwarz
• Gernot R. Müller-Putz

Voluntary upregulation of heart rate variability through biofeedback is improved by mental contemplative training

• Boris Bornemann
• Peter Kovacs
• Tania Singer

Co-stimulation with IL-1β and TNF-α induces an inflammatory reactive astrocyte phenotype with neurosupportive characteristics in a human pluripotent stem cell model system

• Tanja Hyvärinen
• Sanna Hagman
• Susanna Narkilahti

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