Global Trends on Studies with Cognitive Training: Mapping and Bibliometric Analysis Using CiteSpace

The widespread utility of cognitive training has enhanced its value throughout the lifespan of human being by the way of maintaining cognitive performance, reducing neuropsychiatric illnesses, restoring its abilities and preventing cognitive decline. The objective of this study was to investigate the global trend of the literature related to cognitive training research. Publication records related to cognitive training were obtained from web of science (WoS) core collection during the period between 1996 and 2020. CiteSpace 5.7.2.0 version software was used mapping and bibliometric analysis. The extracted records were analyzed by using bibliometric approaches such as dual-overlay analysis, author co-citation analysis (ACA), document co-citation analysis (DCA) and keyword analysis. Overall, 4,528 records were retrieved during the period between 1996 and 2020. It was found that the publication records were increased steadily on recent five years (2016-2020). The US academic institutions and journals were still played a dominant role on cognitive training field. However, University College London (UCL) is the highest publication records (108) and centrality value (0.10). Through the document co-citation analysis(DCA), it was found that applying cognitive training on various diseases viz., alzheimer’s disease, dementia, and Parkinson disease as the predominant trending, followed by training effects, interventions among school-age children, as well as transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) stand out on the studies of cognitive training research. The most recent burst keywords such as ‘age difference,’ ‘brain plasticity,’ ‘cognitive intervention,’ ‘validation,’ and ‘virtual reality’ were considered to be the indicators of emerging trends.