Table 2.

Selection of spinal fMRI studies – resting state fMRI

Authors (year)	Title	Subjects	B0; vendor	Anatomical region	Pulse sequence; contrast	Voxel size; TR/TE (ms); cardiac gating	Clinical outcome measure	Key results
Barry et al. (2014) (42)	Resting state functional connectivity in the human spinal cord	HCs (22)	7 T; Philips	C2 – C5	3D multi-shot GE-EPI	0.91 × 0.91 × 4 mm3; 18/7.8; no	n/a	Low-frequency BOLD fluctuations are inherent in the spinal cord as well as the brain
Kong et al. (2014) (43)	Intrinsically organized resting state networks in the human spinal cord	HCs (24)	3 T; Siemens	C4 – T1	GE-EPI	1 × 1 × 5 mm3; 1890/44; no	n/a	Spatially distinct RSNs in the human spinal cord were identified, that were clearly separated into dorsal and ventral components
Vahdat et al. (2015) (44)	Simultaneous Brain-Cervical Cord fMRI Reveals Intrinsic Spinal Cord Plasticity during Motor Sequence Learning	HC (25)	3 T Siemens	Brain – T1	GE-EPI	2.5 × 2.5 × 4 mm3; 2500/30; no	n/a	Learning-related modulation of activity in the C6–C8 spinal region that is independent from that of related supraspinal sensorimotor structures is observed.
Liu et al. (2016) (45)	Amplitude of Low Frequency Fluctuation (ALFF) in the Cervical Spinal Cord with Stenosis: A Resting State fMRI Study	Cervical spondylotic myelopathy (25) and HCs (18)	3 T; Philips	C1 – C7	GE-EPI	1.25 × 1.25 × 4 mm3; 2000/30; no	JOA score	Amplitude of low frequency fluctuation values were higher in the CSM patients at all cervical segments
Eippert et al. (2017) (46)	Investigating resting-state functional connectivity in the cervical spinal cord at 3T	HCs (20)	3 T Siemens	C6 – T1	GE-EPI	1 × 1x 5 mm3; 1890/44; no;	n/a	Robust resting-state signals were observed at the clinically more prevalent field strength of 3 T.

HC: healthy control; GE: gradient echo; BOLD: blood oxygenation level dependent; GE-EPI: gradient echo echo planar imaging; RSN: resting state networks; CSM: cervical spondylotic myelopathy; JOA: Japanese orthopedic association