BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVE Visual object naming traditionally has been used to identify cortical areas essential for naming (i.e., word retrieval), and investigators have found critical naming sites in the middle and posterior temporal region in most patients. Based on clinical observation, empirical findings, and the pathophysiology of temporal lobe epilepsy, the authors hypothesized that naming...

This review focuses on some historical highlights of the surgery of epilepsy, beginning with the reports of Horsley, Krause, and Cushing to which appeared in 1909, the year that The International League Against Epilepsy (ILAE) was inaugurated. We then outline key contributions from Europe and North America, and examine particularly the evolution of our understanding of temporal lobe seizures, w...

Patients with refractory temporal lobe epilepsy (TLE) are commonly recruited for investigational anti-epileptic drug (XAED) studies. However, the long-term outcome of TLE after exposure to XAEDs is poorly documented. In this pilot study, we report the USC Epilepsy Center's experience of 19 patients with TLE enrolled in three XAED trials. The data reinforce that TLE is a drug-resistant epilepsy,...

MR magnetization transfer ratio was measured in both hippocampi of three patients with temporal lobe epilepsy, and in two control subjects. The magnetization transfer ratio in each section was significantly lower on the affected side than on the contralateral side and in control subjects. Magnetization transfer ratio measurements are relatively fast and precise, this preliminary study shows tha...

OBJECT Cavernous hemangiomas associated with epilepsy present an interesting surgical dilemma in terms of whether one should perform a pure lesionectomy or tailored resection, especially in the temporal lobe given the potential for cognitive damage. This decision is often guided by electrocorticography (ECoG), despite the lack of data regarding its value in cavernoma surgery. The purpose of the...

GABA(B) receptor1 (GABA(B)R1) gene is one of the susceptibility genes for temporal lobe epilepsy (TLE). Recently, it is reported that the GABA(B)R1 polymorphism (G1465A) conferred a highly increased susceptibility to TLE. We performed a case-control study to confirm the findings. The study included a total of 112 nonlesional TLE patients and 124 controls of Chinese ancestry. Our study did not s...

BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE Although most studies on epilepsy have focused on the epileptogenic zone, epilepsy is a system-level disease characterized by aberrant neuronal synchronization among groups of neurons. Increasingly, studies have indicated that mesial temporal lobe epilepsy may be a network-level disease; however, few investigations have examined resting-state functional connectivity of th...

Patients with temporal lobe epilepsy were evaluated for their aura and the site of EEG abnormality. Autonomic and psychic auras were more frequently associated with right-sided temporal lobe lesions in 290 patients.