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Few of the problems of epilepsy are as elusive as that of the focality of focal seizures: opinion has ranged from a Jacksonian optimism (according to which all that was necessary was to delineate the locus of the lesion from which the march of the attack proceeded) to the nihilistic dictum of Collier that the commonest cause of focal epilepsy was idiopathic epilepsy.
The authors of the present volume have attempted to elucidate these problems by the use of electrodes implanted under stereotactic control, from which the origin and spread of spontaneous discharges might be recorded, or through which electrical stimulation might be applied in order to provoke such discharges: these techniques were applied to patients both in relatively acute neurosurgical situations and over more extended periods of time. In all, 72 cases are discussed, which presented clinically with a wide variety of seizure types.
After an excellent discussion of