3.0 t magnetom trio scanner

All the participants were instructed to keep their eyes open fixated on a cross in the center of a screen, relax and try not to fall asleep. Each of the able-bodied participants underwent one resting-state fMRI (rs-fMRI) scanning session. Imaging was performed using a 3-Tesla Siemens whole-body MRI scanner. Functional imaging was 7 min and 54 s long, and included a T2^*-weighted echo planner imaging (EPI) sequence [echo time (TE) = 40 ms; repetition time (TR) = 2000 ms; flip angle = 90°; field of view (FOV) = 24 cm, matrix = 64 × 64; number of slices = 33 and slice thickness = 5 mm]. High-resolution T1-weighted images were acquired for anatomical references using an MPRAGE sequence with an isotropic voxel size of 2 mm. Stroke participants underwent two rs-fMRI scanning sessions. The second session was executed following an intervention where stroke participants underwent either mental practice (MP) alone or mental practice combined with physical therapy (MP+PT). The gap between the sessions ranged from 14 to 51 days. Their fMRI data was collected from a Siemens 3.0 T Magnetom Trio scanner (Siemens Medical Solutions, USA) and included TR/TE/FA = 2350 ms/28 ms/90°, 130 time points (~5 min each), resolution = 3 × 3 × 3 mm³ and 35 axial slices.

MR imaging was performed at Wesley Woods Center of Emory University, Atlanta, GA, USA. Images were acquired with a Siemens 3.0 T Magnetom Trio scanner (Siemens Medical Solutions, Malvern, PA, USA) using a standard quadrature head coil and multi-band sequence (TR/TE/FA = 1000 ms/30 ms/65°, 550 measurements for total duration 9 min10 s, resolution = 3 mm × 3 mm × 3 mm and 52 transversal slices). An anatomical image of each participant was acquired using a 3D magnetization-prepared rapid acquisition gradient echo (MPRAGE) sequence which consisted of 176 sagittal slices of 1 mm-thickness (resolution = 1 mm × 1 mm, in-plane matrix = 256 × 256) with TR/TE/FA = 2300 ms/2.89 ms/8°. Participants repeated the fMRI task six times (scans) per imaging session and underwent two scanning sessions separated by 1 week.