Abstract
Objective: The thalamus regulates complex tasks like motor function and executive control while transmitting sensory information to higher centers. Bibliometric analysis analyzes studies in a research area and guides planning studies in that area. Despite bibliometric analysis in anatomy, there is no study on the thalamus' anatomy. This study aims to perform a bibliometric analysis of the 100 most cited articles on the anatomy of the thalamus, a clinically important region, to guide research in this area, as there is no study on this topic in anatomy.
Material and Methods: Bibliometric analysis was used to evaluate human studies on the anatomy of the thalamus that were published in the Web of Science database between 2004 and 2023. As a result of the analysis, 1704 documents from the last twenty years were found. The data of the first 100 most cited articles were obtained.
Results: The average number of citations of the articles was 229.14. The publication years of the first 5 most cited studies were 2006-2010. The most cited study was by Heckemann et al. (2006). Articles were mostly published in NeuroImage. The United States has the strongest bibliographic link, publishes the most articles and is the most cited. Snyder Abraham Z. is the author with the most articles on this topic. Keyword co-occurrence analysis revealed 4 different clusters: the thalamus and its relationship to related anatomical structures, the connection between the thalamus and psychiatric and mood disorders, the relationship of the thalamus to the cerebral cortex, and the function of the thalamus.
Conclusion: Researchers show high interest in studies on the anatomy of the thalamus. The fact that the studies to be planned on the anatomy of the thalamus have to do with neuroimaging is one of the factors that may increase the number of citations.