Automatic spinal cord localization, robust to MRI contrasts using global curve optimization

•Automatic, fast and robust method to detect the center of the spinal cord on MRI data.•Machine learning based method followed by a global curve optimization.•Brain and spine regions are automatically separated at the pontomedullary junction.•Validation on 804 images, 4 contrasts, 20 centers, large amount of patients.•Better results compared to a state-of-the-art technique.