Spinal injury (SCI) can significantly impair cough and the influence of SCI on the spatiotemporal mechanisms responsible for this behavior are unknown. We hypothesized that spinal hemisection would produce deficits in the spatiotemporal components of cough. Experiments were performed in eight anesthetized spontaneously breathing cats. Esophageal pressure (Pes) and rectus abdominis (RA) electromyograms (EMG) were recorded before and 4 weeks after left T10 spinal hemisection. Cough was elicited by mechanical stimulation of the vocal folds and epiglottis through an oral approach. Cough numbers and average Pes were similar before and after injury. There were no changes in rise-times for Pes, right RA EMG, or left RA EMG during cough after injury. Normalized RA EMG amplitudes also were not significantly changed by SCI. There were significant relationships between Pes and right RA EMG (r=0.64, slope=0.94±0.14, p<0.001) and left RA EMG (r=0.7, slope=1.15±0.14, p<0.001) rise-times before injury that were disrupted after hemisection (Pes vs right RA r=−0.02, slope=−0.05±0.23, p<0.84; Pes vs left RA r=0.06, slope=0.01±0.19, p<0.63). The data indicate functionally effective crossed expiratory motor pathways that allow the transmission of motor drive related to cough to RA motoneurons below the injury site. However, T10 hemisection disrupts the temporal relationship between motor drive to this motoneuron pool and cough pressures. Supported by Dept of Veterans Affairs, NIH NS050699 and HL07125.