Andy Wai Kan Yeung

The Changing Landscape of Neuroscience Research, 2006–2015: A Bibliometric Study

Background: It is beneficial to evaluate changes in neuroscience research field regarding research directions and topics over a defined period. Such information enables stakeholders to quickly identify the most influential research and incorporate latest evidence into research-informed education. To our knowledge, no study reported changes in neuroscience literature over the last decade. Therefore, the current study determined research terms with highest citation scores, compared publication shares of research areas and contributing countries in this field from 2006 to 2015 and identified the most productive journals. Methods: Data were extracted from Web of Science and Journal Citation Reports (JCR). Only articles and reviews published in journals classified under the JCR “Neurosciences” category over the period of interest were included. Title and abstract fields of each included publication were extracted and analyzed via VOSviewer to identify recurring terms with high relative citation scores. Two term maps were produced for publications over the study period to illustrate the extent of co-occurrence, and the impact of terms was evaluated based on their relative citation scores. To further describe the recent research priority or “hot spots,” 10 terms with the highest relative citation scores were identified annually. In addition, by applying Bradfords law, we identified 10 journals being the most productive journals per annum over the survey period and evaluated their bilbiometric performances. Results: From 2006 to 2015, there were 47 terms involved in the annual lists of top 10 terms with highest relative citation scores. The most frequently recurring terms were autism (8), meta-analysis (7), functional connectivity (6), default mode network (4) and neuroimaging (4). Neuroscience research related to psychology and behavioral sciences showed an increase in publication share over the survey period, and China has become one of the major contributors to neuroscience research. Ten journals were frequently identified (≥8 years) as core journals within the survey period. Discussion: The landscape of neuroscience research has changed recently, and this paper provides contemporary overview for researchers and health care workers interested in this fields research and developments. Brain imaging and brain connectivity terms had high relative citation scores.

Basic taste processing recruits bilateral anteroventral and middle dorsal insulae: An activation likelihood estimation meta-analysis of fMRI studies

Numerous task‐based functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) studies have reported the locations of basic taste representations in the human brain, but they usually employed a limited number of subjects (<20) with different methodologies and stimuli. Moreover, the reported brain regions were sometimes inconsistent. Thus, we aimed at performing a meta‐analysis of the published data to identify locations consistently activated across studies, and performed a connectivity analysis to reveal how these taste processing regions connect with other brain regions.

At the Leading Front of Neuroscience: A Bibliometric Study of the 100 Most-Cited Articles

Background: It might be difficult for clinicians and scientists to identify comprehensively the major research topics given the large number of publications. A bibliometric report that identifies the most-cited articles within the body of the relevant literature may provide insight and guidance for readers toward scientific topics that are considered important for researchers and all relevant workers of academia. To our knowledge, there is a lack of an overall evaluation of the most-cited articles and hence of a comprehensive review of major research topics in neuroscience. The present study was therefore proposed to analyze and characterize the 100 most-cited articles in neuroscience. Methods: Based on data provided from Web of Science, the 100 most-cited articles relevant to neuroscience were identified and characterized. Information was extracted for each included article to assess for the publication year, journal published, impact factor, adjusted impact factor, citation count (total, normalized, and adjusted), reference list, authorship and article type. Results: The total citation count for the 100 most-cited articles ranged from 7,326 to 2,138 (mean 3087.0) and the normalized citation count ranged from 0.163 to 0.007 (mean 0.054). The majority of the 100 articles were research articles (67%) and published from 1996 to 2000 (30%). The author and journal with the largest share of these 100 articles were Stephen M. Smith (n = 6) and Science (n = 13) respectively. Among the 100 most-cited articles, 37 were interlinked via citations of one another, and they could be classified into five major topics, four of which were scientific topics, namely neurological disorders, prefrontal cortex/emotion/reward, brain network, and brain mapping. The remaining topic was methodology. Interestingly 41 out of 63 of the rest, non-interlinked articles could also be categorized under the above five topics. Adjusted journal impact factor among these 100 articles did not appear to be associated with the corresponding adjusted citation count. Conclusion: The current study compiles a comprehensive list and analysis of the 100 most-cited articles relevant to neuroscience that enables the comprehensive identification and recognition of the most important and relevant research topics concerned.

Affective value, intensity and quality of liquid tastants/food discernment in the human brain: An activation likelihood estimation meta-analysis

ABSTRACT The primary dimensions of taste are affective value, intensity and quality. Numerous studies have reported the role of the insula in evaluating these dimensions of taste; however, the results were inconsistent. Therefore, in the current study, we performed meta‐analyses of published data to identify locations consistently activated across studies and evaluate whether different regions of the human brain could be responsible for processing different dimensions of taste. Meta‐analyses were performed on 39 experiments, with 846 total healthy subjects (without psychiatric/neurological disorders) in 34 studies reporting whole‐brain results. The aim was to establish the activation likelihood estimation (ALE) of taste‐mediated regional activation across the whole brain. Apart from one meta‐analysis for all studies in general, three analyses were performed to reveal the clusters of activation that were attributable to processing the affective value (data from 323 foci), intensity (data from 43 foci) and quality (data from 45 foci) of taste. The ALE revealed eight clusters of activation outside the insula for processing affective value, covering the middle and posterior cingulate, pre‐/post‐central gyrus, caudate and thalamus. The affective value had four clusters of activation (two in each hemisphere) in the insula. The intensity and quality activated only the insula, each with one cluster on the right. The concurrence between studies was moderate; at best, 53% of the experiments contributed to the significant clusters attributable to the affective value, 60% to intensity and 50% to quality. The affective value was processed bilaterally in the anterior to middle insula, whereas intensity was processed in the right antero‐middle insula, and quality was processed in the right middle insula. The right middle dorsal insula was responsible for processing both the affective value and quality of taste. The exploratory analysis on taste quality did not have a significant result if the studies using liquid food stimuli were excluded. Results from the meta‐analyses on studies involving the oral delivery of liquid tastants or liquid food stimuli confirmed that the insula is involved in processing all three dimensions of taste. More experimental studies are required to investigate whether brain activations differ between liquid tastants and food. The coordinates of activated brain areas and brain maps are provided to serve as references for future taste/food studies. HighlightsData was pooled from 34 whole‐brain taste fMRI papers (39 experiments, 846 subjects).Affective value of taste appeared to be processed by bilateral anterior and middle insula, cingulate cortex, striatum and orbitofrontal cortexIntensity of taste was processed in right antero‐middle insula.Quality of taste was processed in right middle dorsal insula.This study provided brain maps and coordinates for future taste/food studies.

High resolution time-intensity recording with synchronized solution delivery system for the human dynamic taste perception.

BACKGROUND Time-intensity sensory evaluation of human taste perception is useful to know the feedback of a taste stimulus from tongue. However, it has not been profiled together with reaction time under the constant stimulating tongue in high time resolution. NEW METHOD We first made intra-oral device to deliver taste solution to anterior, lateral and posterior tongue in standardized condition. Second, we developed a time-intensity sensory evaluation meter linked to synchronized taste solution delivery system. Time-intensity profiles were recorded in higher temporal resolution than our past study. Third, we analyzed the corrected taste quality reaction time from raw sensory perception data, and following sensory evaluation profile. RESULTS The new method acquired taste sensory evaluation data with 1 ms temporal resolution and found the reaction timing was 908 ms, the corrected taste quality reaction time was 712 ms, maximum intensity was 3.47, and corrected time to reach maximum intensity was 1312 ms. The coefficient of variation ranged from 0.007 to 0.236 indicating low variance. COMPARISON WITH EXISTING METHODS Time-intensity sensory evaluation in this study did not sacrifice the feature of raw data. The relative comparison of time-intensity sensory profile among subjects will be available in this system in future study, while it was still difficult to define the absolute value of reaction time. CONCLUSIONS Our method could gather real-time feedback for the time-intensity sensory evaluation of a taste stimulus under the standardized stimulating tongue. This could be useful for establishing database of time-intensity sensory profiles for comparison of delicate taste perceptions.

Review of Radiology: App for Android by the Radiological Society of North America (RSNA)

(1 star: lowest/5 stars: highest) Overall Rating (1–5): 4 Content (1–5): 4 Usability (1–5): 4 Pros: The app allows immediate access to the archive of Radiology journal published by Radiological Society of North America (RSNA). Loading time is quick. Cons: The user interface does not allow customization. At A Glance: It is a must-have app for healthcare workers who will stay updated by accessing Radiology journal.

Do Neuroscience Journals Accept Replications? A Survey of Literature

Background: Recent reports in neuroscience, especially those concerning brain-injury and neuroimaging, have revealed low reproducibility of results within the field and urged for more replication studies. However, it is unclear if the neuroscience journals welcome or discourage the submission of reports on replication studies. Therefore, the current study assessed the explicit position of neuroscience journals on replications. Methods: A list of active neuroscience journals publishing in English was compiled from Scopus database. These journal websites were accessed to read their aims and scope and instructions to authors, and to assess if they: (1) explicitly stated that they accept replications; (2) did not state their position on replications; (3) implicitly discouraged replications by emphasizing on the novelty of the manuscripts; or (4) explicitly stated that they reject replications. For journals that explicitly stated they accept or reject replications, their subcategory within neuroscience and their 5-year impact factor were recorded. The distribution of neuroscience replication studies published was also recorded by searching and extracting data from Scopus. Results: Of the 465 journals reviewed, 28 (6.0%) explicitly stated that they accept replications, 394 (84.7%) did not state their position on replications, 40 (8.6%) implicitly discouraged replications by emphasizing on the novelty of the manuscripts, and 3 (0.6%) explicitly stated that they reject replications. For the 28 journals that explicitly welcomed replications, three (10.7%) stated their position in the aims and scope, whereas 25 (89.3%) stated in within the detailed instructions to authors. The five-year impact factor (2015) of these journals ranged from 1.655 to 10.799, and nine of them (32.1%) did not receive a 5-year or annual impact factor in 2015. There was no significant difference in the proportions of journals explicitly welcomed replications (journals with vs. without impact factors, or high vs. low impact factors). All sub-categories of neuroscience had at least a journal that welcomed replications. Discussion: The neuroscience journals that welcomed replications and published replications were reported. These pieces of information may provide descriptive information on the current journal practices regarding replication so the evidence-based recommendations to journal publishers can be made.

Bibliometric Study on Functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging Literature (1995–2017) Concerning Chemosensory Perception

IntroductionThis was the first bibliometric study to investigate the functional magnetic resonance (fMRI) literature on chemosensory perception to reveal who contributed to these publications, where they were published, what concepts were investigated, and their relative impact in terms of citations.MethodsWeb of Science was searched to identify relevant articles. Research areas, authors, contributing countries and territories, journals, and publication years were recorded. The full record and cited references of these articles were used for further bibliometric analyses and network visualization.ResultsThe search yielded 5200 unique authors who had contributed to 1660 articles. The authors in the co-authorship network generally had higher numbers of citations per article than those in the periphery did. The 1660 articles were published in 423 journals, and the distribution did not fulfill Bradford’s law. Articles with contributions from European countries and the USA appeared to have more citations on average relative to those from Asian countries.ConclusionsThe contributions came from a diverse spectrum of authors who had published in journals in multiple disciplines. Papers involving the insula, orbitofrontal cortex, and amygdala had accumulated high numbers of total citations. The hedonic aspect of chemosensory perception in particular had received many citations.ImplicationsThe fMRI literature on chemosensory perception provides substantial neurobiological findings from multiple authors, countries, and journals. These results offer a contemporary overview of the literature and facilitate researchers in identifying relevant papers for future references.

Enhancement of Combined Umami and Salty Taste by Glutathione in the Human Tongue and Brain.

Glutathione, a natural substance, acts on calcium receptors on the tongue and is known to enhance basic taste sensations. However, the effects of glutathione on brain activity associated with taste sensation on the tongue have not been determined under standardized taste delivery conditions. In this study, we investigated the sensory effect of glutathione on taste with no effect of the smell when glutathione added to a combined umami and salty taste stimulus. Twenty-six volunteers (12 women and 14 men; age 19-27 years) performed a sensory evaluation of taste of a solution of monosodium L-glutamate and sodium chloride, with and without glutathione. The addition of glutathione changed taste qualities and significantly increased taste intensity ratings under standardized taste delivery conditions (P < 0.001). Functional magnetic resonance imaging showed that glutathione itself elicited significant activation in the left ventral insula. These results are the first to demonstrate the enhancing effect of glutathione as reflected by brain data while tasting an umami and salty mixture.

Ethnopharmacology—A Bibliometric Analysis of a Field of Research Meandering Between Medicine and Food Science?

Background: The research into bioactive natural products of medicinal plants has a long tradition, but ethnopharmacology as a well-defined field of research has a relatively short history, only dating back 50 years. Aims: With the fast development of this field and its global importance especially in the fast developing economies of Asia it is timely to assess the most influential articles (as measured by citations) and to identify important drivers and research trends in this field. Methods: Scopus was searched to identify relevant articles which were assessed by all three authors. The 100 most cited articles were identified and analyzed. Bibliometric software (VOSviewer) was utilized to supplement the analysis and to generate a term map that visualized the citation patterns of the 100 articles containing different terms. Results: Forty-four of the 100 articles are reviews. On average, each of the 100 articles had 632 citations and since publication was cited 43 times annually. The four core journals were Journal of Ethnopharmacology (n = 17), Food Chemistry (n = 7), Life Sciences (n = 5), and Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry (n = 4). Anti-oxidant effects appeared to be a recurring and highly cited topic, whereas the links into drug discovery and neuropharmacology seemed to be less strong. Numerous medicinal plants and functional foods were the foci of research, and the foci shifted when comparing pre-2000 and post-2000 publications (with the later involving a broader spectrum of plants and foods and a wider range of biological effects). Contributions largely came from Asia, and also from the Americas, Africa, and Oceania, besides Europe. Conclusion: We have identified and analyzed the 100 most-cited articles in ethnopharmacology. Within 50 years the field has gained a profile and while conventionally often linked to “traditional knowledge,” drug discovery and some areas of pharmacology, this analysis highlights its emerging importance in the context of disease prevention (food science), but also the development of research driven by the needs and interests of the fast developing economies most notably of Asia.