Abstract Background In the new International League Against Epilepsy (ILAE) classification of seizure types, generalized seizures such as absence (ASs) may originate from a focal point and rapidly spread to bilaterally distributed brain network. Increasing evidence animal clinical studies has indicated that changes occur prior ASs; however, relationship ASs with epileptogenic lesions remains un...

on epilepsy, observes that traumatic epilepsy falls" into a special group among the epilepsies. Further, he calls attention to a-very important point in connection with so-called traumatic epilepsy, namely, that one should be very cautious in ascribing the fits to a cranial injury even when a definite scar exists on the head of the patient in the left parietal region. Mus'keris would go so far ...

PURPOSE In addition to the frontal lobe, the temporal lobe may also be involved in typical absence seizures. However, few studies have addressed the relationship between this involvement and drug responsiveness in childhood absence epilepsy (CAE). In this study, we observed the current-source distribution (CSD) of generalized spike-and-wave discharges (GSWDs) and investigated the relationship b...

We report an unusual association between idiopathic occipital epilepsy and childhood absence epilepsy in 2 pediatric patients. At first clinical and electroencephalographic evaluation, the patients presented the peculiar signs of idiopathic occipital epilepsy Gastaut type: focal sensory visual seizures, migraine-like symptoms (only in one patient) and unilateral spike-wave discharges over occip...

In order to assess the chloride channel gene CLCN2 as a candidate susceptibility gene for childhood absence epilepsy, parametric and non-parametric linkage analysis was performed in 65 nuclear pedigrees. This provided suggestive evidence for linkage with heterogeneity: NPL score=2.3, p<0.009; HLOD=1.5, alpha=0.44. Mutational analysis of the entire genomic sequence of CLCN2 was performed in 24 u...

Neocortical seizures are often poorly localized, explosive and widespread at onset, making them poorly amenable to epilepsy surgery in the absence of associated focal brain lesions. We describe, for the first time in an unselected group of patients with neocortical epilepsy, the finding that high-frequency (60-100 Hz) epileptiform oscillations are highly localized in the seizure onset zone, bot...

Previous research shows that children with Rolandic Epilepsy have deficits of auditory processing. We wanted to confirm the nature of this deficit and whether it aggregates in families. We compared 40 children with Rolandic Epilepsy and 32 unaffected siblings with 99 typically developing children and 71 parents of RE children with 31 healthy adults on a battery of auditory processing tests. We ...

PURPOSE To evaluate the efficacy, tolerability, and effects on behavior and psychosocial functioning of lamotrigine monotherapy in children with newly diagnosed typical absence seizures. PATIENTS AND METHODS Children meeting enrollment criteria (n=54) received a confirmatory 24-h ambulatory electroencephalogram (EEG) and then entered a Escalation Phase of up to 20-weeks during which lamotrigi...

Thalamic relay neurons have well-characterized dual firing modes: bursting and tonic spiking. Studies in brain slices have led to a model in which rhythmic synchronized spiking (phasic firing) in a population of relay neurons leads to hyper-synchronous oscillatory cortico-thalamo-cortical rhythms that result in absence seizures. This model suggests that blocking thalamocortical phasic firing wo...