Neural Networks in Human Epilepsy: Evidence of and Implications for Treatment

A considerable amount of compelling evidence exists, predominantly from animal models and experimental paradigms, for the existence of specific cortical and subcortical networks in the genesis and expression of partial- and generalized-onset seizures (1–13). My goal is to present the concept of human epilepsy as a disorder of large neural networks and to support through several lines of reasoning how applicable the observations from experimental models are to localization-related seizures in the human disorder. I do not attempt to define specifically every possible operational human network or even all the limits or components of those that I do address, but I hope to show in a compelling way that the evidence…