Exploration of functional organization in human cervical spinal cord using resting state fMRI

Abstract

Resting state functional organization in the human cervical cord has only been scarcely explored. In this study, we investigated the resting state functional organization using a clinically relevant 3T whole body MRI scanner from 24 healthy subjects. The correlation coefficient computed from rsfMRI images between each ventral or dorsal horn of different segments was used to generate the correlation matrix. Segment C2 demonstrated stronger correlations with other segments. Segment C2 has a stronger neural activity level than other segments. Functional organization among segments was detected, which demonstrated the functional network in the human cervical cord.