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.