Neuralink’s first female PRIME trial participant, Audrey Crews, is now creating abstract art using the company’s brain-computer interface.

Crews, who was paralyzed from the neck down at age 16, has been creating memorable abstract art with her mind using an innovative brain-computer interface (BCI) technology.

Crews is the 9th Neuralink participant and the first woman to receive the implantable device in the PRIME clinical trials.  

With fewer than 100 people worldwide with BCIs, Crews has found herself at the intersection of art and the future of bneuroscience. By using only the power of thought, Crews has created vibrant abstract art with rich color and shapes.

On her website, she explains why creating this art is important to her: “My mission is to expand the boundaries of human expression and share the u

nseen landscapes of the mind,” Crews says. 

Her artwork has evolved stylistically since her first showcase on X in 2025, at which time she was learning to draw her name.

“I tried writing my name for the first time in 20 years. Im working on it,” Crews said in a post on X. 

“I’ll never forget the moment I used my thoughts to write my name, ‘Audrey,’ on a laptop screen for the first time in two decades. I even drew hearts and a slice of pizza, which felt like a small miracle! I shared that moment on X, laughing about my progress,” Crews said on her website.

“It’s humbling to know my journey is helping Neuralink refine this technology, which could one day let millions control devices with their minds,” she added.  

Since then, Crews’ art has evolved, and she has also launched her online NeuraArt Studio, where fans can purchase limited-edition prints of her artwork.

Amid the BCI company’s efforts, Neuralink states that its devices are still “investigational and not FDA approved.” 

However, in January of this year, the company said in a statement that a “primary ‌aim of our expanding clinical trials is to better understand these variations and improve both our hardware and the overall procedure for every participant.”

Neuralink began human trials of its brain implant in 2024 after resolving safety concerns raised by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, which had previously declined to approve its initial application in 2022.

For Crews, what she has achieved lies at the intersection of current implantable BCI technology and fine abstract art, signaling a fundamental reframing of what it means to create, perceive, and even experience such creative products—a shift from something merely observed to something partially constructed by BCI users through thought.

“This breakthrough didn’t just restore my ability to create—it ignited a passion for art that had been dormant for too long,” she says. Crews’ art can be viewed, and prints are available for purchase, on her NeuraArt Studio website.

Chrissy Newton is a PR professional and the founder of VOCAB Communications. She currently appears on The Discovery Channel and Max and hosts the Rebelliously Curious podcast, which can be found on YouTube and on all audio podcast streaming platforms. Follow her on X: @ChrissyNewton, Instagram: @BeingChrissyNewton, and chrissynewton.com. To contact Chrissy with a story, please email chrissy @ thedebrief.org.

A new study shows that one psychedelic experience doesn’t just alter how a person feels; it may also change the brain itself. Researchers at UC San Francisco and Imperial College London found that a single 25 mg dose of psilocybin produces signs of likely anatomical changes in the brain that persist for at least a month after the experience.

Published in Nature Communications, the study was conducted in healthy adults with no prior psychedelic use. These results may help explain why psilocybin-assisted therapy is being explored as a treatment for depression, anxiety, and addiction.

The researchers identified a key mechanism behind these changes. Instead of focusing on a single brain region, they identified brain entropy as a key factor linking the experience to later outcomes.

What the Brain Looks Like on Psilocybin

Brain entropy refers to the diversity of neural activity happening at any given moment. A low-entropy brain tends to fall into predictable, repetitive patterns. A high-entropy brain is processing a richer, more varied stream of information. Within 60 minutes of taking the 25 mg dose, EEG recordings showed a sharp spike in entropy.

This increase in entropy persisted longer than the drug’s immediate effects. People who experienced the biggest jumps in entropy also reported more psychological insight the next day, saying they felt a deeper sense of emotional self-awareness. These insights coincided with improvements in well-being that lasted for at least two to four weeks.

“Psychedelic means ‘psyche-revealing,’ or making the psyche visible,” said senior author Robin Carhart-Harris, PhD, the Ralph Metzner Distinguished Professor of Neurology at UCSF. “Our data shows that such experiences of psychological insight relate to an entropic quality of brain activity and how both are involved in causing subsequent improvements in mental health.”

How the Study Was Designed

The study included 28 healthy adults with no mental health diagnoses. The experiment had two phases. First, each person received a very low 1 mg dose of psilocybin, which acted as a placebo. Researchers then tracked their brain activity and structure using EEG, MRI, and diffusion tensor imaging over the next few weeks.

One month later, those same participants received the 25 mg dose. The researchers then repeated the same series of brain scans and assessments.

Diffusion tensor imaging (DTI), a technique that measures water movement along neural pathways, showed that participants’ brain connections were more structurally intact a month after the high dose. This finding is the opposite of what typically happens with aging, which tends to weaken these connections. The most noticeable changes were in pathways linking the front and middle parts of the brain, areas involved in self-reflection, emotional regulation, and decision-making.

The Trip Is the Treatment

All but one participant described the 25 mg experience as the most unusual state of consciousness they had ever experienced. The other person ranked it among their top five. A month later, the group also performed better on a test of cognitive flexibility, which measures how well a person can adapt their thinking to new information.

Author Taylor Lyons, PhD, a research associate at Imperial College London, pointed to this chain of effects as the study’s most significant takeaway.

“Psilocybin seems to loosen up stereotyped patterns of brain activity and give people the ability to revise entrenched patterns of thought,” Lyons said. “The fact that these changes track with insight and improved well-being is especially exciting.”

These results could guide future research. If brain entropy during the experience predicts how well the treatment works, scientists might be able to use it to calibrate dosage in real time. This could help ensure patients get enough to support insight and recovery, without so much that it causes excessive stimulation.

What Comes Next

Carhart-Harris noted that the therapeutic promise of psilocybin has been recognized for years. This study now provides new details about the biological mechanisms that may underlie its effects.

“We already knew psilocybin could be helpful for treating mental illness,” Carhart-Harris said. “But now we have a much better understanding of how.”

In an era where sports science and neurorehabilitation increasingly intersect, a groundbreaking study published in Scientific Reports is reshaping our understanding of post-surgical brain functionality. The research, led by Grinberg, Lehmann, Strandberg, and colleagues, provides compelling evidence that visual information plays a critical role in modulating brain network activity during static balance tasks following anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) reconstruction. Utilizing sophisticated graph theoretical analysis, this study offers a fresh perspective on the brain’s adaptability and the intricate neural mechanisms supporting balance recovery after orthopedic injuries.

Given the high prevalence of ACL injuries in athletic populations, the road to full recovery remains arduous and complex. Traditional rehabilitation focuses primarily on restoring physical strength and joint stability. However, emerging evidence suggests that the central nervous system undergoes significant reorganization after such injuries, influencing motor control and postural stability. This study delves deeper, exploring how visual inputs dynamically alter the brain’s communication networks during balance performance once the ACL is surgically reconstructed.

The research team employed a rigorous experimental design incorporating neuroimaging and quantitative network analysis to unravel these complex neural dynamics. Participants who had undergone ACL reconstruction were assessed while maintaining a static balance posture under varying conditions of visual feedback. By leveraging graph theoretical models, the authors were able to characterize alterations in functional connectivity and network topology within the brain, revealing distinct patterns linked to visual information availability.

Remarkably, the findings highlight that visual input is not merely a supplementary cue but actively reshapes the brain’s balance-related network architecture. Under conditions where visual information was available, the brain exhibited enhanced efficiency and integration within key sensorimotor networks. This nuanced neural adaptation underscores the brain’s remarkable plasticity and the pivotal role that visual cues play in restoring postural control following ligament repair.

From a methodological standpoint, the application of graph theory in this context represents a significant advance. Traditional neuroimaging analyses often focus on localized brain activation, whereas graph theoretical approaches allow for systemic evaluation of how different brain regions interact as a cohesive network. This holistic perspective is crucial for understanding how the brain orchestrates complex functions like balance, especially when compensating for peripheral impairments.

Intriguingly, the study reports that post-ACL reconstruction, the brain’s networks undergo reconfiguration, exhibiting both increased segregation and integration depending on the sensory conditions. When visual input was occluded, functional connectivity patterns suggested a less efficient network organization, highlighting the compensatory reliance on vision for balance maintenance. This insight could inform tailored rehabilitation strategies that optimize sensory feedback to accelerate functional recovery.

The implications extend beyond athletes recovering from knee injuries. The elucidation of visual modulation on brain connectivity could influence rehabilitation protocols for a variety of neurological and orthopedic conditions where balance is compromised. By understanding the fundamental neural circuitry interaction influenced by sensory information, clinicians may better target interventions that harness neuroplasticity to improve outcomes.

Moreover, this study contributes to the expanding field of sensorimotor neuroscience by illuminating how multisensory integration supports postural stability. Balance is not governed by isolated vestibular or proprioceptive inputs alone but emerges from a sophisticated interplay of sensory modalities, with vision evidently playing a predominant role. The graph theoretical findings underscore how this sensory integration manifests as dynamic network changes in the brain during task execution.

The use of static balance as a behavioral paradigm offers a controlled environment to isolate the neural effects of visual manipulation, yet it also raises intriguing questions about how these findings translate to more dynamic, real-world motor activities. Future investigations may build upon this framework by exploring the neural correlates of balance during complex, sport-specific movements or under dual-task conditions that mimic real-life challenges faced by recovering athletes.

From the perspective of computational neuroscience, the employment of graph theoretical measures such as network efficiency, clustering coefficient, and modularity provides robust quantitative markers of brain function. These metrics not only enable comparisons across clinical populations but also offer mechanistic insights into how network reorganization supports behavioral adaptations. This methodological sophistication enhances the translational relevance of the findings.

The study’s findings are situated within a growing recognition that brain-behavior relationships post-injury are dynamic and modifiable. Rehabilitation programs that incorporate visual training modalities might potentiate beneficial brain network plasticity and improve balance outcomes more effectively than those focusing solely on physical strengthening. This highlights the necessity of integrating neuroscientific principles into clinical practice for optimized patient care.

In addition to its clinical relevance, the research signals a broader scientific paradigm shift emphasizing network neuroscience as a framework to interpret neurological recovery. The brain is increasingly viewed as an adaptive, self-organizing system rather than a static collection of functional modules. Such perspectives are transforming our understanding of recovery processes and informing the design of novel therapeutic strategies.

Technological advances enabling real-time brain network monitoring and neurofeedback could ultimately harness these insights for personalized rehabilitation. For example, wearable neuroimaging devices may assess network dynamics during therapy sessions, allowing for immediate adjustments tailored to the patient’s evolving neural state. These developments promise to revolutionize traditional rehabilitation approaches by making them more responsive and evidence-based.

Overall, Grinberg and colleagues’ study is a testament to the power of interdisciplinary research combining biomechanics, neuroscience, and computational analysis to uncover the subtleties of human motor control. By demonstrating that visual information profoundly modulates brain network characteristics during static balance after ACL reconstruction, they pave the way for more integrative and effective interventions that bridge neural science and clinical application.

As the field progresses, further research is encouraged to explore the temporal evolution of these network changes across different stages of rehabilitation. Longitudinal studies tracking neural plasticity from acute post-surgical phases through to complete functional restoration could elucidate the critical windows during which sensory modulation produces maximal benefit.

In conclusion, this pioneering investigation sheds light on the essential role of vision in enhancing brain network organization for balance control following ligament repair, challenging conventional rehabilitation paradigms. It underscores the importance of multimodal sensory integration in post-injury neural reorganization, offering novel pathways to improve both understanding and treatment of balance impairments. Such scientific advances not only elevate clinical practice but also inspire future innovation at the intersection of neuroscience and rehabilitation medicine.

Subject of Research: The modulation of brain network characteristics by visual information during static balance tasks in individuals following anterior cruciate ligament reconstruction, analyzed through graph theoretical methods.

Article Title: Correction: Visual information modulates brain network characteristics during static balance following ACL reconstruction – A graph theoretical analysis.

Article References:
Grinberg, A., Lehmann, T., Strandberg, J. et al. Correction: Visual information modulates brain network characteristics during static balance following ACL reconstruction – A graph theoretical analysis. Sci Rep 16, 16980 (2026). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-026-56238-6

Image Credits: AI Generated