The brain-gut axis: the dawn of neurological disorders?

Abstract

Over the past two decades, the brain-gut axis has received increasing scholarly attention. However, few bibliometric analyses have systematically examined this area. We aimed to visualize the current status of research in this field, summarize hotspots, and present trends through a bibliometric analysis of published publications related to the brain-intestinal axis. Publications about the brain-gut axis were selected from the Web of Science Core Database (WoSCC) database. Countries/regions, institutions, authors, journals, references, and keywords in this field were visually analyzed using VOSviewer and CiteSpace software. A total of 3320 publications were eventually retrieved from 2000 to 2021. Publications on the brain-gut axis have increased year by year, especially in the last decade. The United States was the most prolific country (943, 28.404%), while Ireland was the country with the highest average number of article citations (156.03). Before 2011, most studies focused on the brain-gut axis, with irritable bowel syndrome being the most studied disorder; whereas in the last decade, most studies focused on the gut-brain axis, especially the microbial gut-brain axis, with neurodegenerative disorders being the most studied. In terms of global trends, research on the brain-gut axis is booming. Moreover, the role and therapeutic applications of the microbial-gut-brain axis in the progression of central nervous system (CNS) diseases, especially neurodegenerative diseases, are the focus of current research and future research trends.