© 2004, AAAS
In a normal neuron (top), action potentials progress down the axon and there is a less robust dendritic echo. In a person with sprouted axons (middle), action potentials are rerouted back to neighboring dendrites. But action potential reverberation can occur without sprouting (bottom). Blocked A-type K+ channels reduce inhibitory A currents allowing larger echoes. (From: K. Staley,
Epilepsy often develops after the brain is damaged, and patients commonly must take anticonvulsant drugs for a lifetime despite unpleasant side effects. Such drugs target the seizures but not the underlying cause. Now, new theories promise to untangle the mechanisms of epileptogenesis and presage the possibility of a new generation of drugs that treat the initial brain damage and prevent epilepsy from developing.
In roughly half of all patients with epilepsy, the condition develops later in life after the patient sustains a brain injury such ...
