MRI acquisition

We performed MRI scans using a 3.0 T GE Sigma system (General Electric) with a standard 8-channel head coil at First Affiliated Hospital of China Medical University. We acquired T₁ images using a 3-dimensional fast-spoiled gradient echo sequence with the following parameters: repetition time 7.1 ms, echo time 3.2 ms, image matrix 240 × 240, field of view 240 × 240 mm², 176 contiguous slices of 1 mm without gap, voxel size 1.0 × 1.0 × 1.0 mm³. We acquired diffusion tensor imaging (DTI) using a single short spin echo planar imaging sequence with the following parameters: repetition time 17 000 ms, echo time 85.4 ms, image matrix 120 × 120, field of view 240 × 240 mm², 65 contiguous slices of 2 mm without gap, and 25 noncollinear directions (b = 1000 s/mm²), together with an axial acquisition without diffusion weighting (b = 0), voxel size 2.0 × 2.0 × 2.0 mm³. Two neuroradiologists with more than 3 years of experience interpreting neuroradiology images checked image quality.