Image Acquisition

Since 2010, patients with epilepsy have been studied with an epilepsy-specific imaging protocol that includes an acquisition section for rs-fMRI and standard structure imaging sections. For this study, the control subjects were imaged with the same imaging sequences. MRI was performed on a SIGNA HDX 1.5T (GE, Milwaukee, WI, USA). A high-resolution T1-weighted image was acquired using a fast-spoiled gradient-recalled echo sequence: repetition time (TR) = 14.024 ms; echo time (TE) = 14.024 ms; flip angle = 15°; field of view (FOV) = 220 mm × 220 mm; matrix = 256 × 256; and slice thickness = 1 mm. The DTIs were acquired with the following parameters: TR = 8,000 ms; TE = 82.4 ms; flip angle = 15°; FOV = 250 mm × 250 mm; matrix = 256 × 256; slice thickness = 3 mm; number of excitations = 2; 25 gradient directions with a b value of 1,000 s/mm²; and 1 null tensor image with a b value of 0 s/mm². The rs-fMRI data were obtained by: TR = 2.223 ms; TE = 35 ms; flip angle = 90°; FOV = 240 mm × 240 mm; matrix = 64 × 64; slice thickness = 4 mm; and totaling 6 min 40 s per scan.