Trio mr scanner

Functional imaging data were acquired at the Department of Psychiatry, Psychotherapy and Psychosomatics of the RWTH Aachen University Hospital on a 3 T Siemens Trio MR Scanner (Siemens Medical Systems, Erlangen, Germany). Echo-planar imaging (EPI) sensitive to blood-oxygen-level-dependent (BOLD) contrast were used (T2*, voxel size: 3.1×3.1×3.1 mm³, distance factor 15%, GAP 0.5 mm, 64×64 matrix, FoV: 200×200 mm², TR = 2s, TE = 30 ms, α = 76°) with 36 slices covering the entire brain. To avoid magnetic field saturation effects, image acquisition was preceded by 6 dummy scans which were discarded before preprocessing. The resulting 785 volumes per subject were analyzed using SPM8 (http://www.fil.ion.ucl.ac.uk/spm) implemented in MATLAB 2010b (Mathworks, Sherborn, MA). Images were realigned to the first volume. Spatial normalization into MNI space was accomplished by means of the unified segmentation approach [78] (link); an 8 mm FWHM Gaussian kernel was used for smoothing. A 128 Hz high pass filter removed effects of low frequency noise.

Using a 3 Tesla Siemens Trio MR Scanner (Siemens Medical Systems, Erlangen, Germany) located at the Department of Psychiatry, Psychotherapy and Psychosomatics of the RWTH Aachen University Hospital, the following sequences covering the entire brain were obtained for each participant: (a) 4 min T1‐weighted MP‐RAGE 3D measurement (TR = 1900, TE = 2.52, TI = 900; α = 9°, FoV = 250 mm², voxel size: 1 × 1 × 1 mm³, slices = 176); and (b) a 6.2 min T2*‐weighted echo‐planar imaging (EPI) resting‐state condition (TR = 3000, TE = 35, α = 84°, FoV = 192 mm, voxel size: 3 × 3 × 3 mm³, 44 slices, gap 15%, 64 × 64 matrix, repetitions = 124). For the resting‐state condition, participants were asked to relax in the scanner, keep their eyes open and avoid falling asleep.

In Experiments 1 and 2, MR-data were acquired at a 3T Siemens Trio MR-scanner equipped with an 8-channel head-coil. For anatomical coregistration, a T1 weighted image was recorded before the functional imaging (192 sagittal slices, 256 × 256 1 mm isotropic voxels, TR = 2500 ms, TE = 4.77, FA = 7°). The same echo-planar imaging sequence was used for the main experiment as well as for the localizer (34 transversal slices, 3.5 mm isotropic voxels, matrix size = 64 voxels, TR = 2000 ms, TE = 30 ms, flip angle = 80°, interleaved slice acquisition). During the main experiment, 780 volumes were recorded, while the localizer lasted for 330 volumes.
In Experiment 3, MR-data were acquired at a 3 T Philips Achieva dStream MR-scanner equipped with a 32-channel head-coil. For anatomical coregistration, a T1 weighted image was recorded before the functional imaging (192 sagittal slices, 256 × 256 1 mm isotropic voxels, TR = 2300 ms, TE = 4.65 ms, FA = 8°). The same echo-planar imaging sequence was used for the main experiment as well as for the localizer (35 transversal slices, 3 mm isotropic voxels, matrix size = 80 voxels, TR = 2000 ms, TE = 30 ms, flip angle = 90°, ascending slice acquisition). During the main experiment, 14 runs of 97 volumes were recorded, while the localizer lasted for 4 runs of 156 volumes.

All the MRI data were acquired on a 3 T Siemens Trio MR scanner with a 12-channel phased-array head coil at the Brain Imaging Center of SCNU. For each subject, the resting-state fMRI (R-fMRI) data were collected by using an echo planar imaging (EPI) sequence with the following parameters: repetition time (TR) = 2,000 ms, echo time (TE) = 30 ms, flip angle = 90°, field of view (FOV) = 224 mm × 224 mm, in-plane matrix size = 64 × 64, slice thickness = 3.5 mm, voxel size = 3.5 mm × 3.5 mm × 3.5 mm, and 32 axial slices. During the R-fMRI scan, the participants were asked to open their eyes to fix a black cross on the screen and lay in the scanner in a supine position. About 180 functional volumes were obtained in a 6 min scan. The T-fMRI data were collected by using the same sequence with the R-fMRI scan. During the T-fMRI scan, the participants were asked to perform a visual creative synthesis task and a control task. Each run included 18 trials and lasted for 770 s (385 TRs; Figure 1IA). Individual high-resolution brain structural images were acquired by using a three dimensional (3D) T1-weighted magnetization-prepared rapid gradient-echo (MP-RAGE) sequence.