Improved in vivo diffusion tensor imaging of human cervical spinal cord

► A comprehensive tract-specific DTI protocol for human cervical spinal cord. ► Small radial diffusivity in WM highlighted the effect of optimization. ► Respiratory motion likely biased DTI parameters in spinal cord. ► Mixed-effects model accounted for systematic measurement bias. ► Outlier removal is indispensable for reproducible spinal cord diffusion imaging.