Language comprehension in mild cognitive impairment: a bibliometric study of research trends and thematic structures

Vollständiger Abstract

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Objective A decline in language comprehension may represent a potential indicator of progressive cognitive deterioration in people with neurodegenerative diseases, and this sign often becomes noticeable as early as the mild cognitive impairment (MCI) stage. This study aimed to map the knowledge domain of language comprehension research in MCI, summarize its major research patterns, and identify recent research fronts, with a view to informing early identification, assessment, and intervention in neurodegenerative diseases. Methods A bibliometric approach was adopted. Relevant publications were retrieved from the Web of Science (WoS) Core Collection, with the time span set from 2001 to 2025. After refining, manual checking, and deduplication, 914 articles and reviews were included. VOSviewer and CiteSpace were used to analyze the publication trends, subject categories, country collaborations, co-cited references, keyword co-occurrence, co-citation clusters, and citation bursts. Scopus was used as an independent database to assess the robustness of the WoS-based findings, and a generalized additive model (GAM) was fitted to compare the annual publication trajectories derived from the two databases. Results Research on language comprehension in MCI showed an overall increase within the study period. The WoS and Scopus datasets differed in overall publication volume but showed no statistically detectable difference in the shape of their annual publication trends. The field is mainly distributed across neurosciences, clinical neurology, geriatrics & gerontology, psychology, and linguistics. The USA plays a leading role in both publication numbers and international collaborations. The knowledge foundation of this field is largely grounded in the clinical characterization of MCI, Alzheimer’s disease (AD) diagnostic frameworks, and biomarker research. Major research topics are organized around the clinical and biomarker-based framing of MCI and AD, together with discourse, connected speech, semantic processing, and cognitive mechanisms of comprehension. Recent hotspots point to early language markers, ecologically valid measures, and automated approaches to detection and assessment. Conclusion This study offers a macroscopic view of language comprehension research in MCI. Future work should pay more attention to stage-related changes, cross-linguistic variations, clearer distinctions among comprehension processes, and more reliable measures for clinical monitoring and intervention evaluation. Future reviews may also extend this work to language production and broader communicative functioning in MCI.