Mapping three decades of consciousness research in neuroscience: a scientometric synthesis of intellectual evolution and emerging frontiers

Abstract

Over the past three decades, consciousness research in neuroscience has expanded into a broad and increasingly diverse field. Despite significant progress, a quantitative understanding of how these research areas have collectively evolved has remained limited. In this study, we conducted a large-scale scientometric analysis of consciousness research in neuroscience based on 22,836 publications and 639,975 cited references retrieved from the Web of Science Core Collection spanning 1998–2025. We identified three major research paths: neural correlates of conscious contents and states, internal awareness and self-consciousness, and integrative approaches bridging these two paths. Emerging hotspots included neural mechanisms of consciousness, subjective experience, disorders of consciousness (DoC), and interoception. Despite increasing boundary-spanning research across different areas, bibliometric connections between DoC and other major topics, particularly subjective experience and interoception, remain comparatively sparse. These findings provide a field-level synthesis of consciousness research in neuroscience, offering a quantitative framework for understanding its development and emerging research directions.