FUNCTIONAL MAGNETIC-RESONANCE-IMAGING OF MOTOR ACTIVATION IN THE HUMAN CERVICAL SPINAL-CORD

Functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) at 1.5 T of a 30-mm segme nt of the human spinal cord, centered at the seventh cervical cord seg ment, showed mean blood-oxygenation-dependent contrast changes in imag e intensity of 4.8% associated with a unilateral hand-closing task in normal human volunteers. The observed locale of activation in the ipsi lateral intermediate and ventral gray matter of the cervical cord cont ains motoneurons, corticospinal axonal terminations from the hand area of the brain motor cortex, and capillaries supplying the spinal neuro ns. This noninvasive observation of focal activation within the human spinal cord is consistent with neuronal cooperation over more than one cord segment and suggests that fMRI of the human central nervous syst em may have wider clinical applications outside of the brain. (C) 1996 Academic Press, Inc.