medical illustration
scientific illustration
Hidden Currents: The Brain as a Fluid Ecosystem
MIT Museum BRAIN Digital Content Open Call — Supporting Documentation
A science-art illustration translating emerging human neurofluid research into an imagined underwater world.
About the Project
Hidden Currents was created in response to the research article “Mapping human glymphatic compartments and putative meningeal border pathways in diseased models,” published in Brain in 2026.
Using contrast-enhanced 3T MRI in 477 patients, the study provides new noninvasive in vivo human evidence of compartmentalized cerebrospinal-fluid spaces surrounding cerebral arteries. It also identifies focal perivenous tracer enrichment with characteristics resembling periarterial enrichment, supporting possible connections between periarterial, perivenous, and meningeal-border pathways.
These findings offer a new way to visualize and investigate human neurofluid transport in vivo, with potential relevance to research on cerebrospinal-fluid movement, blood–brain barrier dysfunction, waste clearance, and neurological disease.
From Research to Illustration
The ocean became the visual language for this project for two reasons. First, the research centers on cerebrospinal fluid, hidden currents, and transport through microscopic spaces surrounding cerebral vessels. The pipe-like structures in the illustration do not represent the blood vessels themselves; instead, they visualize the fluid compartments outside the vessels that are central to the study.
Second, brain corals share a striking visual resemblance with the folds and convolutions of the human cerebral cortex. I incorporated these forms throughout the underwater landscape so that marine ecology and brain anatomy gradually merge into a single imagined ecosystem.
Potential Museum Adaptation
The original illustration is complete and can be presented as a static digital work. If the MIT Museum feels that the large-scale display would benefit from motion, I would also be happy to adapt the work into a subtle, seamless animated loop. Possible motion could include drifting particles, gentle fluid currents, softly moving marine organisms, and occasional pulses of light suggesting transport through the brain’s hidden fluid pathways, while preserving the atmosphere and composition of the original illustration.
About the Artist
Emma Cheng, M.D. is a San Francisco-based medical doctor turned award-winning illustrator specializing in science, healthcare, and editorial storytelling. Her work translates complex biomedical ideas into imaginative and approachable visual narratives.
Her clients include The New York Times, The Washington Post, The Atlantic, The Lancet, Harvard Public Health, Science Magazine, DK (Penguin Random House), and Bristol Myers Squibb. Her work has been recognized by the Society of Illustrators, Communication Arts, 3x3, and American Illustration.
Research Reference