Pathological findings in temporal lobe epilepsy

Temporal lobe epilepsy, similarly to focal epilepsy arising elsewhere in the brain, can result from a wide variety of lesions that may involve the temporal lobe. Some of these may be of sufficient size, as for example most tumours, cirsoid angiomas, poren-cephalic cysts, and the scars of penetrating head injuries, so that their presence can usually be revealed by the appropriate clinical and radio-logical examinations. More often, however, the neurological examination is negative (apart from electroencephalography) and cerebral arteriography and encephalography do not disclose any such tangible abnormality. The underlying pathological basis then is a matter for speculation and conjecture. For more than a century it has been known tha