Noninvasive observation of cervical spinal cord activity in children by functional MRI during cold thermal stimulation

Functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) is a non-invasive neuroimaging tool that indirectly identifies areas of neural activity in the brain and more recently has been applied to the adult spinal cord (spinal fMRI). Spinal fMRI could clearly benefit pediatric populations as well. The purpose of this work was to characterize the response observed with spinal fMRI in the brainstem and cervical (C) spinal cord of awake, healthy children during thermal stimulation (17°C and 27°C) applied to the right hand. Functional MRI detected neuronal activity in the expected region of the spinal cord (C6 and C7) as well as in the brainstem and thalamus. The observed magnitudes of signal change of the responses to 17°C and 27°C were similar; however, the spatial distribution of active pixels was greater during 17°C stimulation. The results of this study indicate that fMRI can be used to assess activity in the spinal cords of children, with good sensitivity and reliability.