NotebookEntry 03
The publishing gap
Brain-computer interface papers grew from 37 in 2000 to 4,992 in 2025. Papers on how brain tissue responds to the electrodes have stayed between 32 and 52 a year since 2017.
- Interactive chart
- Real data
- OpenAlex
- Made with Claude
- 26 September 2026
BCI papers, 2025
4,992
2.6 times the 2017 count
Tissue-response papers, 2025
52
51 in 2017: flat
Tissue papers per 1,000 BCI papers
12.8
2021 to 2025, down from 17.7 in 2013 to 2017
Brain-computer interface papers per year
Bar chart, 2000 to 2025. The count rises almost every year, from 37 in 2000 to 1,908 in 2017 and 4,992 in 2025. Use the arrow keys to read each year.
Papers on tissue response to neural electrodes: foreign-body response, glial scar, gliosis
Bar chart, 2000 to 2025. The count climbs from 2 in 2000 to 51 in 2017, then stays between 32 and 52 a year through 2025. Use the arrow keys to read each year.
Why it matters
Brain-computer interfaces are scaling fast, but the tissue response around every implant still limits how long one keeps working. On these counts, the field's attention has not scaled with it: relative to all BCI papers, tissue-response work fell from 17.7 per thousand (2013 to 2017) to 12.8 per thousand (2021 to 2025).
How the counts were made
Two title and abstract searches of OpenAlex, an open index of scholarly papers, run by Claude on 26 September 2026: one for brain-computer interfaces, one for the tissue response to neural electrodes (foreign-body response, glial scar, gliosis). Keyword searches miss some papers and catch a few strays, so read the shapes, not the exact totals.