The present-day concept of temporal lobe epilepsy was initiated by Hughlings Jackson's observations relating "dreamy states" to lesions in the uncinate region.1-3 Electroencephalographic studies subsequently showed a significant correlation between psychomotor seizures and temporal lobe discharges in the electroencephalogram.4-8 The typical aura of the patient's seizure can often be reproduced by electrical stimulation of the exposed temporal lobe,9 and seizures are frequently abolished after temporal lobectomy.10 The removed temporal lobe may contain a focal lesion, such as a tumor, an angioma, a hamartoma, or a scar which easily could have caused seizures.11-14
Strong arguments, therefore, favor equating psychomotor seizures and temporal lobe seizures, and these terms indeed are frequently interchanged. "Psychomotor seizure," however, is a clinical descriptive term, while "temporal lobe seizures" indicates seizures associated with electroencephalographically recorded abnormal discharges in the temporal lobe. The correlation between psychomotor seizures and temporal lobe discharges in the