Fig. 1. Three-dimensional reconstruction of a normal spinal cord segment. An uninjured spinal cord segment was reconstructed using the isocontouring method to demonstrate that a familiar, normal morphology is reproduced. This serves as an image ‘control’ or reference for the reader since spinal cord injury produces an unfamiliar, unusually stenotic, and misshapen structure. The white matter was made transparent while the central gray matter was rendered in green in this visualization. The dorsal and ventral surfaces are flat because these very small sections (cutting into and out of the tissue block) were usually lost or damaged. In this and subsequent figures, the cylindrical icon indicates the relative orientation of the three-dimensional segment. The blue color indicates the caudal end of the cylinder. Unless noted otherwise, the dorsal surface of all reconstructed spinal cords faces towards the top of the page.