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Hal Blumenfeld, MD, PhD

Arch Neurol. 2002;59:135-137.

	Since this article does not have an abstract, we have provided the first 150 words of the full text and any section headings.

INTRODUCTION

It seems natural that the thalamus, with its strong reciprocal connections to all areas of the cortex and its inherent tendency to fire rhythmic bursts of action potentials, would form an important part of networks underlying epileptic seizures. A dialogue on the relative importance of the thalamus and cortex in the pathogenesis of seizures, which began in the 1800s with John Hughlings Jackson, has included such luminaries as Penfield, Lennox, and Jasper, and it continues today.

EARLY CLINICAL OBSERVATIONS

Based on careful observations of the marked symmetry of clinical findings and sudden loss of consciousness in patients undergoing petit mal and grand mal seizures, John Hughlings Jackson¹ wrote in 1876:

I believe that epileptic petit mal, and epileptic grand mal are, when regarded from the anatomical and physiological point of view, simply different degrees, that is to say, that they depend on different strengths of discharge, beginning in and . . . [Full Text of this Article]

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