For the spine, a custom-built saddle-shaped transmit–receive surface coil (2.5 × 3 cm2 in size) was positioned over each animal’s neck. Five contiguous axial image slices (3 mm thickness) covering C3-C7 cervical segments, with the third slice positioned over the C5 segment, were acquired in each imaging session. High-resolution structural gradient echo images (TR = 220 ms, TE = 3.24 ms, FOV = 32×32 mm2, matrix size = 128×128, in-plane resolution = 0.25 × 0.25 mm2, thickness = 3 mm, 5 slices) with magnetization transfer contrast (MTC) were acquired following a Gaussian saturation pulse (flip angle = 820°, pulse width = 12 ms, RF offset = 5,000 Hz). Multiple runs of stimulus - evoked fMRI data were acquired using the same block-design stimulation protocol as applied for brain fMRI. BOLD fMRI data were acquired using a fast gradient echo sequence (flip angle = ~18°, TR = 46.88 ms, TE = 6.5 ms, in-plane resolution = 0.5 × 0.5 3mm slice thickness, 3s per volume, 250 volumes) covering the same geometry as anatomic imaging. The subject 1-12 are control and 13-28 are post surgery data. One of the control animal was not present in post surgery data making the total number of animals 17. The anatomic MTC template is in the anat_img folder of the the control subjects. Pre-process and codes used to plot data with instructions are available on github repository (https://github.com/arimishra/repository_fMRI-DTItoolsVUIIS.v2-2024).