Trends in social neuroscience research on adolescents: A bibliometric analysis

Abstract

This study aims to analyze publication trends, authors, dominant keywords, and emerging research areas on adolescents from a social neuroscience perspective over the past 30 years. Social neuroscience focuses on aspects of brain development and social behavior. A bibliometric analysis was conducted using the Scopus database covering the period 1995–2025. Analytical techniques included trend analysis, co-occurrence mapping, and pareto chart to identify patterns and clusters of research. The results indicate a significant growth of publications with R2 = 81.56%. Journal articles were the dominant document type 66.59% of the publications. Based on geographic distribution, 80% of the research was conducted in five countries. Co-occurrence mapping based on the keywords reveals four clusters, and based on document titles and abstracts, five clusters are identified. The most frequently used keywords are adolescent, child, young adult, mental health, emotion, brain mapping, prefrontal cortex, social behaviour, decision making, and controlled study. The findings demonstrate that social neuroscience research on adolescents has grown substantially, with increasing attention to brain development and social behavior. This study provides valuable insights for researchers, policymakers, and practitioners by highlighting emerging themes and key contributors in adolescent social neuroscience.