From Past to the Future of fMRI in Pediatrics: A Bibliometric Analysis

Context: The use of functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) in the evaluation of children's brains is becoming increasingly popular. However, due to the high number of publications, it's nearly impossible to read all the related articles and become aware of the crucial elements or the best approach to invest time and effort in this field. Objectives: Our goal was to gain a better overall understanding of fMRI publications and to use this information in policy and management contexts to make more efficient decisions. Methods: Data were downloaded from Scopus from the 1990s to the end of 2021 based on the theme of fMRI in pediatrics. The retrieved research articles were analyzed with the Bibliometrix package in R software. Results: From 8,544 documents written by 25,697 authors, the USA is by far the most productive country with a total of 3,609 publications. However, regarding the average article citations, Sweden is at the top of the list, with 77.79 average citations. Important themes include emotion, autism spectrum disorders, attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorders, and childhood maltreatment. Conclusions: The results of the present study on fMRI research in the field of pediatrics will be helpful for professionals to visually understand the pediatric modes and trends in fMRI.