Figure 1. Resting state spinal cord fMRI at 7 Tesla.
(A) Mid-sagittal slice from a healthy volunteer showing the complete cervical cord and typical axial slice placement for this resting state study. In all subjects the imaging stack was centered on the C3/C4 junction, providing full coverage of C3 and C4 and partial coverage of C2 and C5. (B) T2*-weighted anatomical image at C4 acquired with 0.6 × 0.6 × 4 mm3 voxels and interpolated to 0.31 × 0.31 × 4 mm3. Excellent contrast permits visualization of the characteristic butterfly-shaped gray matter column. (C) A single T2*-weighted functional image of this axial slice (acquired with 0.91 × 0.91 × 4 mm3 voxels). Functional images are high quality with minimal geometric distortions and T2* blurring and permit adequate spatial delineation between white matter and cerebrospinal fluid.