Altered spinal cord activity during sexual stimulation in women with SCI: a pilot fMRI study

This study used fMRI to examine spinal cord activity in women with spinal cord injuries during sexual stimulation to see if it's possible to assess spinal activation during sexual response. Three women with different types of spinal cord injuries were exposed to sexual audiovisual stimulation, genital self-stimulation, and combined stimulation while their spinal cord activity was monitored using fMRI. The study found differences in spinal cord responses between women with complete and incomplete injuries, suggesting that fMRI can distinguish between injury subtypes and could be useful in future research on sexual responses after SCI.

• 1
  Spinal fMRI responses of the intermediolateral columns were found during audiovisual stimulation in both subjects with incomplete injuries, but not in the subject with a complete injury.
• 2
  Sacral responses to combined stimulation differed greatly between the subjects with complete and incomplete injuries.
• 3
  Subjects with incomplete injuries demonstrated positive responses in the IML cell column, similar to healthy controls, during psychogenic audiovisual stimulation.