# Topics and Trends in Most Cited Neuroscience and Neuropharmacology Research Papers, Class of 2026

*Canonical URL: https://pri.pepkio.com/top-papers/neuroscience-and-neuropharmacology-research/2026*

## What topics and trends defined most-cited Neuroscience and Neuropharmacology Research research in the Class of 2026?

Memory mechanisms and hippocampal circuits dominate the Class of 2026, with major surges in research on memory engrams and astrocyte-neuron interactions. Conversely, broad techniques like optogenetics and calcium imaging saw proportional declines as focus sharpened on specific molecular and cellular pathways.

## At a glance

| Fact | Value |
| --- | --- |
| Field | Neuroscience and Neuropharmacology Research |
| Cohort label | Class of 2026 (2024 publications) |
| Papers analyzed | 7,381 |
| Papers ranked | 20 |
| Top topics in ranked papers | Hippocampus, hippocampal neurons, memory engrams, synaptic plasticity |
| Publication window | Jan 1, 2024 – Dec 31, 2024 |
| Eligibility | Research articles; reviews excluded |
| Citation window | 18 months post-publication |
| 18m citation range | 57–208 |
| Data source | OpenAlex · Retrieved July 2026 |
| License | CC BY 4.0 |

## Rankings

| Rank | Title | Authors | Corresponding authors | Affiliation | Journal | 18m citations | DOI |
| ---: | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | ---: | --- |
| 1 | A petavoxel fragment of human cerebral cortex reconstructed at nanoscale resolution | Alexander Shapson-Coe, Michał Januszewski, Daniel R Berger, Art Pope, Yuelong Wu, Tim Blakely, Richard L Schalek, Peter H Li, Shuohong Wang, Jeremy Maitin-Shepard, Neha Karlupia, Sven Dorkenwald, Evelina Sjostedt, Laramie Leavitt, Dongil Lee, Jakob Troidl, Forrest Collman, Luke Bailey, Angerica Fitzmaurice, Rohin Kar, Benjamin Field, Hank Wu, Julian Wagner-Carena, David Aley, Joanna Lau, Zudi Lin, Donglai Wei, Hanspeter Pfister, Adi Peleg, Viren Jain, Jeff W Lichtman | Alexander Shapson-Coe, Michał Januszewski, Daniel R. Berger, Viren Jain, Jeff W. Lichtman | Harvard University, United States | Science | 208 | 10.1126/science.adk4858 |
| 2 | Adenosine signalling to astrocytes coordinates brain metabolism and function | Shefeeq M Theparambil, Olga Kopach, Alice Braga, Shereen Nizari, Patrick S Hosford, Virag Sagi-Kiss, Anna Hadjihambi, Christos Konstantinou, Noemi Esteras, Ana Gutierrez Del Arroyo, Gareth L Ackland, Anja G Teschemacher, Nicholas Dale, Tobias Eckle, Petros Andrikopoulos, Dmitri A Rusakov, Sergey Kasparov, Alexander V Gourine | Shefeeq M. Theparambil, Alexander V. Gourine | University College London, United Kingdom | Nature | 106 | 10.1038/s41586-024-07611-w |
| 3 | Brain clearance is reduced during sleep and anesthesia | Andawei Miao, Tianyuan Luo, Bryan Hsieh, Christopher J Edge, Morgan Gridley, Ryan Tak Chun Wong, Timothy G Constandinou, William Wisden, Nicholas P Franks | William Wisden, Nicholas P. Franks | Imperial College London, United Kingdom | Nature Neuroscience | 104 | 10.1038/s41593-024-01638-y |
| 4 | Abstract representations emerge in human hippocampal neurons during inference | Hristos S Courellis, Juri Minxha, Araceli R Cardenas, Daniel L Kimmel, Chrystal M Reed, Taufik A Valiante, C Daniel Salzman, Adam N Mamelak, Stefano Fusi, Ueli Rutishauser | Hristos Courellis, Ueli Rutishauser | Cedars-Sinai Medical Center, United States | Nature | 96 | 10.1038/s41586-024-07799-x |
| 5 | Infraslow noradrenergic locus coeruleus activity fluctuations are gatekeepers of the NREM–REM sleep cycle | Alejandro Osorio-Forero, Georgios Foustoukos, Romain Cardis, Najma Cherrad, Christiane Devenoges, Laura M J Fernandez, Anita Lüthi | Anita Lüthi | University of Lausanne, Switzerland | Nature Neuroscience | 96 | 10.1038/s41593-024-01822-0 |
| 6 | Blood pressure pulsations modulate central neuronal activity via mechanosensitive ion channels | Luna Jammal Salameh, Sebastian H Bitzenhofer, Ileana L Hanganu-Opatz, Mathias Dutschmann, Veronica Egger | Luna Jammal, Veronica Egger | Regensburg University, Germany | Science | 82 | 10.1126/science.adk8511 |
| 7 | A mouse DRG genetic toolkit reveals morphological and physiological diversity of somatosensory neuron subtypes | Lijun Qi, Michael Iskols, David Shi, Pranav Reddy, Christopher Walker, Karina Lezgiyeva, Tiphaine Voisin, Mathias Pawlak, Vijay K Kuchroo, Isaac M Chiu, David D Ginty, Nikhil Sharma | David D. Ginty, Nikhil Sharma | Howard Hughes Medical Institute, United States | Cell | 81 | 10.1016/j.cell.2024.02.006 |
| 8 | Control of working memory by phase–amplitude coupling of human hippocampal neurons | Jonathan Daume, Jan Kamiński, Andrea G P Schjetnan, Yousef Salimpour, Umais Khan, Michael Kyzar, Chrystal M Reed, William S Anderson, Taufik A Valiante, Adam N Mamelak, Ueli Rutishauser | Jonathan Daume, Ueli Rutishauser | Cedars-Sinai Medical Center, United States | Nature | 75 | 10.1038/s41586-024-07309-z |
| 9 | Learning-associated astrocyte ensembles regulate memory recall | Michael R Williamson, Wookbong Kwon, Junsung Woo, Yeunjung Ko, Ehson Maleki, Kwanha Yu, Sanjana Murali, Debosmita Sardar, Benjamin Deneen | Benjamin Deneen | Baylor College of Medicine, United States | Nature | 74 | 10.1038/s41586-024-08170-w |
| 10 | Tonic and burst-like locus coeruleus stimulation distinctly shift network activity across the cortical hierarchy | Christina Grimm, Sian N Duss, Mattia Privitera, Brandon R Munn, Nikolaos Karalis, Stefan Frässle, Maria Wilhelm, Tommaso Patriarchi, Daniel Razansky, Nicole Wenderoth, James M Shine, Johannes Bohacek, Valerio Zerbi | Johannes Bohacek, Valerio Zerbi | ETH Zürich, Switzerland | Nature Neuroscience | 72 | 10.1038/s41593-024-01755-8 |
| 11 | Physical exercise mediates cortical synaptic protein lactylation to improve stress resilience | Lan Yan, Yajie Wang, Haidong Hu, Diran Yang, Wenjing Wang, Zhihua Luo, Yangze Wang, Fengzhen Yang, Kwok-Fai So, Li Zhang | Li Zhang | Jinan University, China | Cell Metabolism | 71 | 10.1016/j.cmet.2024.07.018 |
| 12 | Multi Targeted Therapy for Alzheimer’s Disease by Guanidinium-Modified Calixarene and Cyclodextrin Co-Assembly Loaded with Insulin | Qi-Yue Zhang, Qiang Wang, Jing-Xuan Fu, Xin-Xin Xu, Dong-Sheng Guo, Yu-Chen Pan, Tao Zhang, Hui Wang | Yuchen Pan, Tao Zhang, Hui Wang | Hebei University of Technology, China | ACS Nano | 66 | 10.1021/acsnano.4c05693 |
| 13 | Dopamine reuptake and inhibitory mechanisms in human dopamine transporter | Yue Li, Xianping Wang, Yufei Meng, Tuo Hu, Jun Zhao, Renjie Li, Qinru Bai, Pu Yuan, Jun Han, Kun Hao, Yiqing Wei, Yunlong Qiu, Na Li, Yan Zhao | Yan Zhao | Chinese Academy of Sciences, China | Nature | 64 | 10.1038/s41586-024-07796-0 |
| 14 | A neurophysiological basis for aperiodic EEG and the background spectral trend | Niklas Brake, Flavie Duc, Alexander Rokos, Francis Arseneau, Shiva Shahiri, Anmar Khadra, Gilles Plourde | Anmar Khadra, Gilles Plourde | McGill University, Canada | Nature Communications | 63 | 10.1038/s41467-024-45922-8 |
| 15 | Functional specificity of recurrent inhibition in visual cortex | Petr Znamenskiy, Mean-Hwan Kim, Dylan R Muir, M Florencia Iacaruso, Sonja B Hofer, Thomas D Mrsic-Flogel | Petr Znamenskiy, Thomas D. Mrsic‐Flogel | The Francis Crick Institute, United Kingdom | Neuron | 62 | 10.1016/j.neuron.2023.12.013 |
| 16 | Whole-brain spatial organization of hippocampal single-neuron projectomes | Shou Qiu, Yachuang Hu, Yiming Huang, Taosha Gao, Xiaofei Wang, Danying Wang, Biyu Ren, Xiaoxue Shi, Yu Chen, Xinran Wang, Dan Wang, Luyao Han, Yikai Liang, Dechen Liu, Qingxu Liu, Li Deng, Zhaoqin Chen, Lijie Zhan, Tianzhi Chen, Yuzhe Huang, Qingge Wu, Taorong Xie, Liuqin Qian, Chenxi Jin, Jiawen Huang, Wei Deng, Tao Jiang, Xiangning Li, Xueyan Jia, Jing Yuan, Anan Li, Jun Yan, Ninglong Xu, Lin Xu, Qingming Luo, Mu-Ming Poo, Yidi Sun, Chengyu T Li, Haishan Yao, Hui Gong, Yan-Gang Sun, Chun Xu | Shou Qiu, Yachuang Hu, Yiming Huang, Taosha Gao, Y. S. Huang, Yidi Sun, Chengyu Li, Haishan Yao, Hui Gong, Yan-Gang Sun, Chun Xu | Chinese Academy of Sciences, China | Science | 60 | 10.1126/science.adj9198 |
| 17 | Brain region–specific action of ketamine as a rapid antidepressant | Min Chen, Shuangshuang Ma, Hanxiao Liu, Yiyan Dong, Jingxiang Tang, Zheyi Ni, Yi Tan, Chenchi Duan, Hui Li, Hefeng Huang, Yulong Li, Xiaohua Cao, Christopher J Lingle, Yan Yang, Hailan Hu | Hailan Hu | Zhejiang University, China | Science | 60 | 10.1126/science.ado7010 |
| 18 | Human hippocampal and entorhinal neurons encode the temporal structure of experience | Pawel Tacikowski, Güldamla Kalender, Davide Ciliberti, Itzhak Fried | Paweł Tacikowski, Itzhak Fried | University of California, Los Angeles, United States | Nature | 60 | 10.1038/s41586-024-07973-1 |
| 19 | Complex activity and short-term plasticity of human cerebral organoids reciprocally connected with axons | Tatsuya Osaki, Tomoya Duenki, Siu Yu A Chow, Yasuhiro Ikegami, Romain Beaubois, Timothée Levi, Nao Nakagawa-Tamagawa, Yoji Hirano, Yoshiho Ikeuchi | Yoshiho Ikeuchi | The University of Tokyo, Japan | Nature Communications | 59 | 10.1038/s41467-024-46787-7 |
| 20 | Selection of experience for memory by hippocampal sharp wave ripples | Wannan Yang, Chen Sun, Roman Huszár, Thomas Hainmueller, Kirill Kiselev, György Buzsáki | György Buzsáki | New York University, United States | Science | 57 | 10.1126/science.adk8261 |

## Topic trends

### What Topics Define the Class of 2026?

The Class of 2026 in Neuroscience and Neuropharmacology Research is heavily anchored in memory formation and cellular circuitry. The hippocampus emerges as the undisputed focal point, supported by prominent representation of hippocampal neurons and synaptic plasticity. High-resolution cellular mapping is evident through the prevalence of research into memory engrams and single-neuron recordings, indicating a field-wide push to demystify the exact physical traces of memory. Moreover, the metabolic and supporting roles of glial cells are capturing significant attention, as seen in the frequent study of astrocyte-neuron interactions and metabolic substrates like lactate and glutamate. Together, these topics reflect a paradigm where neuropharmacology is increasingly intersecting with ultra-precise cellular engram analysis and neuro-glial metabolic coupling.

*Leading research themes*

### How Did Topics Shift from the Class of 2025 to the Class of 2026?

A comparison between the Class of 2025 and 2026 reveals a distinct transition from broad methodological techniques to highly specific cellular subjects. The most explosive growth was seen in hippocampal neurons and memory engrams, which were absent from the top concepts in the previous year but surged to dominate the current cohort. Similarly, topics related to neurotransmitters and glial cells, such as glutamate, lactate, and oligodendrocytes, experienced massive proportional increases. In contrast, widely used experimental methodologies that previously led the field—such as optogenetics and calcium imaging—experienced notable proportional declines. This pattern suggests that while these tools remain essential, the frontier of high-impact research has moved past methodological development toward the direct application of these tools in uncovering the granular mechanics of memory and astrocyte-neuron interactions.

*How topics shifted year over year*

## Cite this ranking

```
Pepkio Research Index (PRI). Topics and Trends in Most Cited Neuroscience and Neuropharmacology Research Papers, Class of 2026. https://pri.pepkio.com/top-papers/neuroscience-and-neuropharmacology-research/2026. Accessed 2026-07-15.

Zheng Su, Tinsley Li, Thematic Shifts in Early-High-Impact Cancer Genomics and Diagnostics Research: A Bibliometric and Semantic Analysis. bioRxiv 2026.07.04.736459; doi: https://doi.org/10.64898/2026.07.04.736459
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