Testing was carried out using a 3T GE CXK4 Magnet (General Electric Medical. Systems, Milwaukee, WI) at the UCSD Keck Imaging Center equipped with 8 high-bandwidth receivers that allow for shorter readout times and reduced signal distortions and ventromedial signal dropout. Each session lasted one hour and encompassed: a 3-plane scout scan (10 seconds), as well as a standard anatomical protocol (i.e., a sagittally acquired spoiled gradient recalled sequence) (FOV = 25 cm, matrix = 192 × 256, 172 sagittally acquired slices 1-mm thick, TR = 8 ms, TE = 3 ms, flip angle = 12°). An 8-channel brain array coil was used to axially acquire T2*-weighted echo-planar images (EPIs) with: FOV = 23 cm, matrix = 64 X 64, 30 slices 2.6-mm thick, gap = 1.4 mm, TR = 2000 ms, TE = 32 ms, flip angle = 90°.
