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

Marcalee Alexander, Natalie Kozyrev, Chase R Figley, J Scott Richards

Abstract read

In one paragraph

Article in Spinal cord series and cases, 2017. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 5 papers.

0numbers the graph read from it

0cells of the map it votes in

5citing papers in PubMed

–field-weighted citation impact

1 · What the graph read from it

What it found

Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.

The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.

2 · The registry

The trial behind it

Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.

Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.

3 · Its place in the literature

Who cites it

5 citing papers in PubMed.

Efficacy and Influencing Factors of Short-Term Spinal Cord Stimulation for Postherpetic Neuralgia: A Retrospective Study.Journal of pain research · 2026
Article
Detection of resting-state functional connectivity in the lumbar spinal cord with 3T MRI.Scientific reports · 2023
Article
Ten Key Insights into the Use of Spinal Cord fMRI.Brain sciences · 2018
Review
Orgasm and SCI: what do we know?Spinal cord · 2018
Review
Effect of Physiological Noise on Thoracolumbar Spinal Cord Functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging in 3T Magnetic Field.Basic and clinical neuroscience
Article

4 · The record

Corrections and comments

PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.

5 · Who and what money

Authors and funding

4 authors.

Marcalee AlexanderDepartment of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation, University of Alabama at Birmingham, Birmingham, AL, USA; Rehabilitative Medicine, Birmingham VA Medical Center, Birmingham, AL, USA; Department of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation, Harvard School of Medicine, Boston, MA, USA.

Natalie KozyrevCentre for Neuroscience Studies, Queen's University, Kingston, ON, Canada; Department of Molecular Medicine and Robarts Research Institute, Western University, London, ON, Canada.

Chase R FigleyDepartment of Radiology, University of Manitoba, Winnipeg, MB, Canada; Neuroscience Research Program and Division of Diagnostic Imaging, Kleysen Institute for Advanced Medicine, Health Sciences Centre, Winnipeg, MB, Canada; Department of Psychological and Brain Sciences, Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, MD, USA.

J Scott RichardsDepartment of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation, University of Alabama at Birmingham , Birmingham, AL, USA.

Funding

No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.

6 · The paper itself

Abstract

introductionThe objective of this study was to assess the feasibility of the use of functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) to evaluate the spinal activation during sexual response of the thoracic, lumbar and sacral spinal cord. MATERIALS AND

methodsThis is a laboratory-based pilot study in human females at a University-based medical center in the United States. In three healthy spinal cord injury (SCI) females, spinal cord activations during sexual audiovisual stimulation (alone), genital self-stimulation (alone) and simultaneous audiovisual and genital self-stimulation (combined) were assessed and then compared with each subjects' remaining sensory and motor function.

resultsSpinal fMRI responses of the intermediolateral columns were found during audiovisual stimulation in both subjects with incomplete injuries, but they were not observed in the subject with a complete injury. Moreover, sacral responses to combined stimulation differed greatly between the subjects with complete and incomplete injuries.

conclusionThese results not only provide the first

Indexed as

Autonomic nervous systemSpinal cord

Identifiers

PMID28382212

DOI10.1038/scsandc.2016.41

PMCPMC5289062

What OpenQuestion holds

Textmetadata

Read underepoch 390

Registered trials

None linked

Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.