Experimental partial epileptogenesis.

Identification of the responsible mutant genes and of the functional consequences of the mutations in experimental preparations have begun to shed light on mechanisms underlying a rare form of partial epilepsy in humans, autosomal dominant nocturnal frontal lobe epilepsy. Likewise, study of the mechanisms of nongenetic models of a common form of human epilepsy, complex partial epilepsy of temporal lobe origin, has established the hippocampal dentate granule cells as a functional barrier to invasion of epileptiform activity into hippocampus in normal brain; this barrier is defective in an epileptic brain. Potential mechanisms by which the 'barrier function' might become flawed, such as mossy fiber sprouting, are discussed.

Duke Scholars

Author James O'Connell McNamara Sr. Neurobiology