Abstract #2128

Gardiner K, Malisza K, Gardiner P, Lawrence J, Stroman P

FMRI of the lumbar spinal cord was performed on nine halothane anesthetized rats during electrical stimulation of the hind paw. Electrophysiology was performed in the same animals to identify areas of neuronal activity. Local field potentials were measured extracellularly in the same region of the cord. Both techniques identified the greatest amount of activity around the T13 vertebra. Negative local field potentials were identified from 150 &[micro]m to a depth of 1350 &[micro]m from the dorsal surface. Comparison of the two techniques verifies that spinal fMRI detects areas of neural activity in the spinal cord.