Phytol (PYT) is a diterpene member of the long-chain unsaturated acyclic alcohols. PYT and some of its derivatives, including phytanic acid (PA), exert a wide range of biological effects. PYT is a valuable essential oil (EO) used as a fragrance and a potential candidate for a broad range of applications in the pharmaceutical and biotechnological industry. There is ample evidence that PA may play a crucial role in the development of pathophysiological states. Focusing on PYT and some of its most relevant derivatives, here we present a systematic review of reported biological activities, along with their underlying mechanism of action. Recent investigations with PYT demonstrated anxiolytic, metabolism-modulating, cytotoxic, antioxidant, autophagy- and apoptosis-inducing, antinociceptive, anti-inflammatory, immune-modulating, and antimicrobial effects. PPARs- and NF-κB-mediated activities are also discussed as mechanisms responsible for some of the bioactivities of PYT. The overall goal of this review is to discuss recent findings pertaining to PYT biological activities and its possible applications.

Background: It is beneficial to evaluate changes in neuroscience research field regarding research directions and topics over a defined period. Such information enables stakeholders to quickly identify the most influential research and incorporate latest evidence into research-informed education. To our knowledge, no study reported changes in neuroscience literature over the last decade. Therefore, the current study determined research terms with highest citation scores, compared publication shares of research areas and contributing countries in this field from 2006 to 2015 and identified the most productive journals.Methods: Data were extracted from Web of Science and Journal Citation Reports (JCR). Only articles and reviews published in journals classified under the JCR “Neurosciences” category over the period of interest were included. Title and abstract fields of each included publication were extracted and analyzed via VOSviewer to identify recurring terms with high relative citation scores. Two term maps were produced for publications over the study period to illustrate the extent of co-occurrence, and the impact of terms was evaluated based on their relative citation scores. To further describe the recent research priority or “hot spots,” 10 terms with the highest relative citation scores were identified annually. In addition, by applying Bradford's law, we identified 10 journals being the most productive journals per annum over the survey period and evaluated their bilbiometric performances.Results: From 2006 to 2015, there were 47 terms involved in the annual lists of top 10 terms with highest relative citation scores. The most frequently recurring terms were autism (8), meta-analysis (7), functional connectivity (6), default mode network (4) and neuroimaging (4). Neuroscience research related to psychology and behavioral sciences showed an increase in publication share over the survey period, and China has become one of the major contributors to neuroscience research. Ten journals were frequently identified (≥8 years) as core journals within the survey period.Discussion: The landscape of neuroscience research has changed recently, and this paper provides contemporary overview for researchers and health care workers interested in this field's research and developments. Brain imaging and brain connectivity terms had high relative citation scores.

Antioxidants are abundant in natural dietary sources, and the consumption of antioxidants has a lot of potential health benefits. However, there has been no literature analysis on this topic to evaluate its scientific impact in terms of citations. This study is aimed at identifying and analysing the antioxidant publications in the existing scientific literature. In this context, a literature search was performed with the Web of Science database. Full records and cited references of the 299,602 identified manuscripts were imported into VOSviewer for bibliometric analysis. Most of the manuscripts were published since 1991. The publications were mainly related to the categories biochemistry/molecular biology, food science technology, and pharmacology/pharmacy. These topics have been prolific since 1990 and before. Polymer science was prolific before, but its publication share declined in the recent two decades. Brazil, China, India, and South Korea have emerged as upcoming major contributors besides USA. Most prolific journals were Food Chemistry, Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry, Free Radical Biology and Medicine, and PLOS One. Clinical conditions with high citations included Alzheimer's disease, cancer, cardiovascular disease, and Parkinson's disease. Chemical terms and structures with high citations included alpha-tocopherol, anthocyanin, ascorbate, beta-carotene, carotenoid, curcumin, cysteine, flavonoid, flavonol, hydrogen peroxide, kaempferol, N-acetylcysteine, nitric oxide, phenolic acid, uric acid, vitamin C, vitamin E, selenium, and resveratrol. Citation patterns temporal analysis revealed a transition of the scientific interest from research focused on antioxidant vitamins and minerals into stronger attention focus on antioxidant phytochemicals (plant secondary metabolites).

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Background Virtual reality (VR) and augmented reality (AR) have recently become popular research themes. However, there are no published bibliometric reports that have analyzed the corresponding scientific literature in relation to the application of these technologies in medicine. Objective We used a bibliometric approach to identify and analyze the scientific literature on VR and AR research in medicine, revealing the popular research topics, key authors, scientific institutions, countries, and journals. We further aimed to capture and describe the themes and medical conditions most commonly investigated by VR and AR research. Methods The Web of Science electronic database was searched to identify relevant papers on VR research in medicine. Basic publication and citation data were acquired using the “Analyze” and “Create Citation Report” functions of the database. Complete bibliographic data were exported to VOSviewer and Bibliometrix, dedicated bibliometric software packages, for further analyses. Visualization maps were generated to illustrate the recurring keywords and words mentioned in the titles and abstracts. Results The analysis was based on data from 8399 papers. Major research themes were diagnostic and surgical procedures, as well as rehabilitation. Commonly studied medical conditions were pain, stroke, anxiety, depression, fear, cancer, and neurodegenerative disorders. Overall, contributions to the literature were globally distributed with heaviest contributions from the United States and United Kingdom. Studies from more clinically related research areas such as surgery, psychology, neurosciences, and rehabilitation had higher average numbers of citations than studies from computer sciences and engineering. Conclusions The conducted bibliometric analysis unequivocally reveals the versatile emerging applications of VR and AR in medicine. With the further maturation of the technology and improved accessibility in countries where VR and AR research is strong, we expect it to have a marked impact on clinical practice and in the life of patients.

Background and PurposeNumerous task‐based functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) studies have reported the locations of basic taste representations in the human brain, but they usually employed a limited number of subjects (<20) with different methodologies and stimuli. Moreover, the reported brain regions were sometimes inconsistent. Thus, we aimed at performing a meta‐analysis of the published data to identify locations consistently activated across studies, and performed a connectivity analysis to reveal how these taste processing regions connect with other brain regions.Materials and MethodsA meta‐analysis was performed based on 34 experiments, with 238 total participants in 16 studies, to establish the activation likelihood estimation (ALE) of taste‐mediated regional activation. Meta‐analytic connectivity modeling (MACM) and data stored in BrainMap database were employed to reveal the functional connectivity of the regions identified by ALE with other brain regions, across all types of experiments that caused activation among healthy subjects.Results ALE identified nine activated clusters in bilateral anteroventral and middle dorsal insulae, bilateral thalamus and caudate, bilateral pre‐/postcentral gyrus, and right hippocampus. The concurrence between studies was moderate, with at best 38% of experiments contributed to the significant clusters activated by taste stimulation. Sweet taste was the predominant contributing taste. MACM revealed that at least 50% of the nine clusters coactivated with the middle cingulate cortex, medial frontal gyrus, inferior parietal lobule, and putamen.ConclusionResults suggested that fMRI studies have reported reproducible patterns of activations across studies. The basic taste stimulations resulted in activations in a mostly bilateral network. Moreover, they were connected with cognitive and emotional relevant brain regions.

Background : Monoamine oxidases (MAOs) were discovered nearly a century ago. This article aims to analyze the research literature landscape associated with MAOs as privileged class of neuronal enzymes (neuroenzymes) with key functions in the processes of neurodegeneration, serving as important biological targets in neuroscience. With the accumulating publications on this topic, we aimed to evaluate the publication and citation performance of the contributors, reveal the popular research themes, and identify its historical roots. Methods : The electronic database of Web of Science (WoS) Core Collection was searched to identify publications related to MAOs, which were analyzed according to their publication year, authorship, institutions, countries/regions, journal title, WoS category, total citation count, and publication type. VOSviewer was utilized to visualize the citation patterns of the words appearing in the titles and abstracts, and author keywords. CRExplorer was utilized to identify seminal references cited by the MAO publications. Results : The literature analysis was based on 19,854 publications. Most of them were original articles ( n = 15,148, 76.3%) and reviews ( n = 2,039, 10.3%). The top five WoS categories of the analyzed MAO publications were Pharmacology/Pharmacy ( n = 4,664, 23.5%), Neurosciences ( n = 4,416, 22.2%), Psychiatry ( n = 2,906, 14.6%), Biochemistry/Molecular Biology ( n = 2,691, 13.6%), and Clinical Neurology ( n = 1,754, 8.8%). The top 10 institutions are scattered in the United States, UK, France, Sweden, Canada, Israel, and Russia, while the top 10 countries/regions with the most intensive research on the field of MAOs are the United States, followed by European and Asian countries. More highly cited publications generally involved neurotransmitters, such as dopamine (DA), serotonin, and norepinephrine (NE), as well as the MAO-A inhibitors moclobemide and clorgyline, and the irreversible MAO-B inhibitors selegiline and rasagiline. Conclusion : Through decades of research, the literature has accumulated many publications investigating the therapeutic effects of MAO inhibitors (MAOIs) on various neurological conditions, such as Alzheimer’s disease (AD), Parkinson’s disease (PD), and depression. We envision that MAO literature will continue to grow steadily, with more new therapeutic candidates being tested for better management of neurological conditions, in particular, with the development of multi-target acting drugs against neurodegenerative diseases.