Jasper S Basic Mechanisms Of The Epilepsies

Jasper's Basic Mechanisms, Fourth Edition, is the newest most ambitious and now clinically relevant publishing project to build on the four-decade legacy of the Jasper's series. In keeping with the original goal of searching for "a better understanding of the epilepsies and rational methods of prevention and treatment.", the book represents an encyclopedic compendium neurobiological mechanisms of seizures, epileptogenesis, epilepsy genetics and comordid conditions. Of practical importance to the clinician, and new to this edition are disease mechanisms of genetic epilepsies and therapeutic approaches, ranging from novel antiepileptic drug targets to cell and gene therapies.

It has been the objective of all concerned that this volume should bring together the current work considered significant, viable, and provocative in the field of epilepsy. It is hoped that by so doing it will serve as a benchmark which summarizes past scientific accomplishments, against which future progress can be measured. To this end, the monograph has a twofold mission: to make available to clinicians, scientists, and students a body of data and concepts relevant to epilepsy; and to serve as a stimulus for an expanded interdisciplinary research effort in the epilepsies.

H.H. Jasper, A.A. Ward, A. Pope and H.H. Merritt, chair of the Public Health Service Advisory Committee on the Epilepsies, National Institutes of Health, published the first volume on Basic Mechanisms of the Epilepsies (BME) in 1969. Their ultimate goal was to search for a ""better understanding of the epilepsies and seek more rational methods of their prevention and treatment."" Since then, basic and clinical researchers in epilepsy have gathered together every decade and a half with these goals in mind -- assessing where epilepsy research has been, what it has accomplished, and where it shou.

Intercellular communication via bioactive substances occurs in virtually all multicellular systems. Chemical neurotransmission in the vertebrate nervous system represents a form of signaling of this type. The biology of chemical neurotransmission is complex, involving transmitter synthesis, transport, and release by the presynaptic neuron; signal generation in the target tissue; and mechanisms for termination of the response. The focus of this book is on one aspect of this scheme: the diverse electrophysiological effects induced by different neurotransmitters on targets cells. In recent years, astonishing progress has been made in elucidating the specific physiological signals mediated by neurotransmitters in the verte brate nervous system, yet, in our view, this has not been adequately recog nized, perhaps because the new concepts have yet to filter into neuroscience textbooks. Nevertheless, the principles of neurotransmitter action are critical to advances in many areas of neuroscience, including molecular neurobiol ogy, neurochemistry, neuropharmacology, physiological psychology, and clinical neuroscience. It was the need for a sourcebook that prompted us to engage a group of neurophysiologists to prepare the chapters in this volume. However, there was an additional reason for this book: more and more it seemed that the field, if not yet having reached maturity, at least was ap proaching adolescence, with strengths in some areas and healthy conflicts in others. At this stage of development a textbook can help to define a field, clarify problems to be resolved, and identify areas for future investigation.

Epilepsy is a devastating group of neurological disorders characterized by periodic and unpredictable seizure activity in the brain. There is a critical need for new drugs and approaches given than at least one-third of all epilepsy patients are not made free of seizures by existing medications and become "medically refractory". Much of epilepsy research has focused on neuronal therapeutic targets, but current antiepileptic drugs often cause severe cognitive, developmental, and behavioral side effects. Recent findings indicate a critical contribution of astrocytes, star-shaped glial cells in the brain, to neuronal and network excitability and seizure activity. Furthermore, many important cellular and molecular changes occur in astrocytes in epileptic tissue in both humans and animal models of epilepsy. The goal of Astrocytes and Epilepsy is to comprehensively review exciting findings linking changes in astrocytes to functional changes responsible for epilepsy for the first time in book format. These insights into astrocyte contribution to seizure susceptibility indicate that astrocytes may represent an important new therapeutic target in the control of epilepsy. Astrocytes and Epilepsy includes background explanatory text on astrocyte morphology and physiology, epilepsy models and syndromes, and evidence from both human tissue studies and animal models linking functional changes in astrocytes to epilepsy. Beautifully labelled diagrams are presented and relevant figures from the literature are reproduced to elucidate key findings and concepts in this rapidly emerging field. Astrocytes and Epilepsy is written for neuroscientists, epilepsy researchers, astrocyte investigators as well as neurologists and other specialists caring for patients with epilepsy. Presents the first comprehensive book to synthesize historical and recent research on astrocytes and epilepsy into one coherent volume Provides a great resource on the field of astrocyte biology and astrocyte-neuron interactions Details potential therapeutic targets, including chapters on gap junctions, water and potassium channels, glutamate and adenosine metabolism, and inflammation

This second edition of 'Seizures and Epilepsy' is completely revised, due to tremendous advances in the understanding of the fundamental neuronal mechanisms underlying epileptic phenomena, as well as current diagnosis and treatment, which have been heavily influenced over the past several decades by seminal neuroscientific developments, particularly the introduction of molecular neurobiology, genetics, and modern neuroimaging. This resource covers a broad range of both basic and clinical epileptology.

Covers all aspects of epilepsy, from basic mechanisms to diagnosis and management, as well as legal and social considerations.