THE ELECTRO-ENCEPHALOGRAM IN DIAGNOSIS AND IN LOCALIZATION OF EPILEPTIC SEIZURES

Abstract

Many new instruments and technics have been marshaled to the attack on the problem of epilepsy, but each in turn has proved a disappointment. High power microscopes, penetrating roentgen rays and complicated chemical analyses have revealed some of the abnormalities associated with or resulting from seizures, but never the central vital phenomenon: the abnormal functioning of the cerebral neurons. Hopeful as were the prospects when work on epilepsy with modern laboratory technic was first undertaken, there was no definite prospect of foretelling the approach of a seizure or of ascertaining its point of origin in the brain, the manner of its spread or the conditions which alter the abnormal activity of the brain. No technic (laboratory or clinical) could be presumed to diagnose an epileptic seizure in the absence of subjective symptoms or disturbances of behavior. Some of these things which were not even hoped for have now been attained,