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Spinal cord fMRI is an emerging field with clinical potential. Sub-millimeter in-plane fMRI acquisitions are desirable and achievable, but published studies have had modest temporal resolutions (>2s). Using a custom-built 7T spine coil, we demonstrate sub-second and sub-millimeter cervical cord fMRI for the first time. Employing a 3D multi-shot sequence with appropriate phase corrections and NORDIC denoising, our data demonstrated temporal signal-to-noise ratios similar to those of standard supra-second protocols, and we replicated functional connectivity patterns previously published in the cord. This opens new avenues of discovery similar to those realized through high spatiotemporal resolution brain fMRI.
Rangaprakash et al. (Wed,) studied this question.