A General Electric 3T MR750 whole-body 60 cm bore MRI scanner (GE Healthcare, Waukesha, WI, USA) and 8-chanel head coil were used to collect functional and anatomical images. Participants wore earplugs to reduce scanner noise, and foam pads were used to reduce head motion. The imaging session started with a localizer scan, in which 3-plane (straight axial/coronal/sagittal) localizer fast spin echo (FSE) images were collected. A semi-automated high-order shimming program ensured global field homogeneity. For the task event-related, functional imaging runs, 29 contiguous slices were acquired at an axial oblique orientation, parallel to the AC-PC plane, in an interleaved order (TR = 1500 ms, TE = 27 ms, FOV = 240 mm, flip angle = 77°, voxel size = 3.75 mm × 3.75 mm × 4 mm, 64 × 64 matrix, sensitivity encoding [SENSE] factor = 1); for each run, a total of 252 brain volumes were acquired.
After functional imaging acquisition, a high-resolution, anatomical image was collected. For this image, 166 straight axial slices T1-weighted images were acquired with a 3D fast inverse-recovery-prepared spoiled gradient recalled (SPGR) sequence (TR = 8.10 ms, TE = 3.18 ms, inversion recovery time [TI] = 450 ms, FOV = 256 mm, flip angle = 12°, voxel size = 1 × 1 × 1 mm, 256 × 256 matrix, SENSE factor = 2, using the array spatial sensitivity encoding technique and extended dynamic range).
After functional imaging acquisition, a high-resolution, anatomical image was collected. For this image, 166 straight axial slices T1-weighted images were acquired with a 3D fast inverse-recovery-prepared spoiled gradient recalled (SPGR) sequence (TR = 8.10 ms, TE = 3.18 ms, inversion recovery time [TI] = 450 ms, FOV = 256 mm, flip angle = 12°, voxel size = 1 × 1 × 1 mm, 256 × 256 matrix, SENSE factor = 2, using the array spatial sensitivity encoding technique and extended dynamic range).