MRI examination
MRI experiments were performed with an 11.7T small animal system (Bruker
BioSpec 117/16) with a 6-mm 4-channel surface array coil. Mice were
anesthetized and positioned in the scanner with 0.5% oxygen and 1.5%
isoflurane. Temperature was maintained at 36.0 ± 1.0 °C, and blood
oxygen saturation values were maintained at 96–99%. Standard
adjustments included the calibration of the reference frequency power
and the shim gradients using MapShim (Paravision v6.1). First,
T2-weighted images (T2WI) were acquired as the anatomical reference
using a spin echo sequence8. For rs-fMRI acquisition,
standard GE-EPI was applied. The acquisition parameters and data
preprocessing were as follows: field of view = 18 × 18 cm, matrix = 90 ×
90, repetition time = 2000 ms, echo time = 12.31 ms, number of slices =
45, slice thickness = 0.3 mm, volumes = 240, and acquisition time = 8
min. The whole brain was covered.