Clinical applications of functional near-infrared spectroscopy in the past decade: a bibliometric study

Functional near-infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS) is a noninvasive brain function detection technique based on the principle of neuro-vascular coupling. Based on a bibliometric approach, the present study visualizes and analyses the number of publications, countries, institutions, authors, co-citations and keywords of fNIRS with the help of Web of Science core collection database platform, CiteSpace and VOS-viewer software, and provides a narrative review of the literature in the past decade to comprehensively analyze the application and future development trend of fNIRS in clinical practice. The findings reveal that fNIRS is a clinically valuable tool with numerous advantages. It is therefore widely utilized to capture brain cortical activity data in both resting and task-related states. It enables the analysis of brain functional states from multiple dimensions and can be combined with other brain imaging techniques, improving the identification and detection of various neurological disorders, psychiatric conditions, pediatric medicine, and sports medicine. In the future, fNIRS technology is expected to achieve higher spatiotemporal resolution, increased data collection capacity, reduced interference and errors, and expanded application scope, thereby supporting clinical and research endeavors.