Jasper's Basic Mechanisms of 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 should go. In 1999, the third volume of BME was named in honor of H.H. Jasper. In line with the enormous expansion in the understanding of basic epilepsy mechanisms over the past four decades, this fourth edition of Jasper's BME is the most ambitious yet. In 90 chapters, the book considers the role of interactions between neurons, synapses, and glia in the initiation, spread and arrest of seizures. It examines mechanisms of excitability, synchronization, seizure susceptibility, and ultimately epileptogenesis. It provides a framework for expanding the epilepsy genome and understanding the complex heredity responsible for common epilepsies as it explores disease mechanisms of ion channelopathies and developmental epilepsy genes. It considers the mechanisms of conditions of epilepsy comorbidities. And, for the first time, this 4th edition describes the current efforts to translate the discoveries in epilepsy disease mechanisms into new therapeutic strategies. This book, considered the 'bible' of basic epilepsy research, is essential for the student, the clinician scientist and all research scientists who conduct laboratory-based experimental epilepsy research using cellular, brain slice and animal models, as well as for those interested in related disciplines of neuronal oscillations, network plasticity, and signaling in brain strucutres that include the cortex, hippocampus, and thalamus. In keeping with the 1969 goals, the book is now of practical importance to the clinical neurologist and epileptologist as the progress of research in molecular genetics and modern efforts to design antiepileptic drugs, cures and repairs in the epilepsies converge and impact clinical care.

Jeffrey L. Noebels MD, PhD
Dr. Noebels is Cullen Trust for Health Care Endowed Chair Professor of Neurology, Neuroscience, and Molecular and Human Genetics at Baylor College of Medicine. He is also Vice Chair for Research and Director of the Blue Bird Circle Developmental Neurogenetics Laboratory in the Department of Neurology. The focus of his research is on genetic and cellular mechanisms of neuronal synchronization disorders in the developing brain.

Massimo Avoli, MD
Dr. Avoli is Professor in the Department of Neurology and Neurosurgery, and in the Department of Physiology at McGill University. He is also Professor of Human Physiology at Sapienza University of Rome. His research focuses on the cellular and pharmacological mechanisms underlying excitability and epileptiform synchronization, epileptogenesis, and mental retardation syndromes.

Michael A. Rogawski, MD, PhD
Dr. Rogawski is a professor in the Department of Neurology at the University of California, Davis School of Medicine. He previously served as chief of the Epilepsy Research Section at the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke. His research is on the cellular mechanisms of action of antiepileptic drugs and new epilepsy treatment approaches.

Richard W. Olsen, PhD
Dr. Olsen is Distinguished Professor of Neuroscience, Pharmacology, and Anesthesiology at the David Geffen School of Medicine at the University of California Los Angeles (UCLA), in the Department of Molecular & Medical Pharmacology. The focus of his research is the structure and function of GABA-A receptors in the brain including their involvement in epilepsy and alcoholism.

Antonio V. Delgado-Escueta, MD
Dr. Delgado-Escueta is Professor in Residence in Neurology at the David Geffen School of Medicine at the University of California Los Angeles (UCLA). He is also director of the Epilepsy Center of Excellence at the VA Greater Los Angeles Healthcare System in West Los Angeles. The focus of his research is isolating human epilepsy genes and defining their disease mechanisms.