Sense head 8 channel head coil

A 3-T Philips Achieva whole-body scanner was used to acquire structural data using a SENSE-Head-8 channel head coil and a custom-built head restrainer to minimize head movements.
For both patients and healthy controls, diffusion tensor imaging (DTI) data were acquired using an axial diffusion-weighted, single-shot, echo-planar imaging sequence covering the whole brain (repetition time = 8,880 ms; echo time = 70 ms, bandwidth = 3,135 Hz/pixel; flip angle = 90°; matrix size = 128 × 128 voxels; field of view = 240 × 240 mm; slice thickness = 2.1 mm; contiguous axial slices = 57). Two b-values were used: 0 s/mm² (seven no diffusion-weighted images) and 1,000 s/mm² (64 non-coplanar, diffusion-weighted images). The 64 gradient directions were uniformly distributed on a sphere.

Participants were asked to perform the motor task while lying in the scanner with arms relaxed along the body. They were instructed to open and close either hand according to the visual cue (i.e., arrow) appearing on the screen together with the instruction “Move”. The movement was performed at a self-paced rate—in order to reduce task demands and effort—and until the instruction changed to “Still”. Each block lasted 15 s for a total of eight task blocks (i.e., four for the right hand and four for the left hand) interleaved with nine rest blocks.
Images were acquired on a Philips Achieva 3-T (Best, Netherlands) whole-body scanner using a SENSE-Head-8 channel head coil and a custom-built head restrainer to minimize head movements. Functional images were obtained using a single-shot gradient echo, echoplanar imaging (EPI) sequence. EPI volumes (N = 102) contained 34 contiguous axial slices (repetition time, TR = 2500 msec, echo-time, TE = 35 msec, field-of-view, FOV = 230 × 230 mm², matrix: 128 × 128, voxel size: 1.797 × 1.797 × 3 mm³, 90° flip angle).
Stimulus sequence was designed and synchronized with the MR scanner by the Presentation software (Version 9.9, Neurobehavioral Systems Inc., Berkeley, CA, USA) and were displayed by the VisuaStim Goggles system (Resonance Technology Inc., Northridge, CA, USA).