In 1969, H.H. Jasper, A.A. Ward, and A. Pope and the Public Health Service Advisory
Committee on the Epilepsies of the National Institutes of Health published the first
edition of Basic Mechanisms of the Epilepsies. The book was developed following a
workshop held in Colorado Springs and an open symposium. Since then, basic and
clinical researchers in epilepsy have gathered together about every 14 years to
assess where epilepsy research has been, what it has accomplished, and where it
should go. Each time a book was published. In a foreword written for the second
edition of Basic Mechanisms of the Epilepsies, published in 1983, Jasper reminded us
that the original and ultimate goal of the Public Health Service committee was to
search for a “better understanding of the epilepsies and seek more rational methods
of their prevention and treatment.” In 1999, the third edition was named in honor of
H.H. Jasper. This fourth edition of Jasper’s Basic Mechanisms of the Epilepsies is
based on a series of workshops held for four days at Yosemite National Park in March
2009. The book (1) synthesizes the role of interactions between neurons, synapses,
and glia in the initiation, spread, and arrest of seizures; (2) examines the
molecular, cellular, and network plasticity mechanisms that subserve excitability,
seizure susceptibility, and ultimately epileptogenesis; (3) provides a framework for
expanding the genome of rare Mendelian epilepsies and understanding the complex
heredity responsible for common epilepsies; (4) explores cellular mechanisms of the
two main groups of presently known Mendelian epilepsy genes, the ion channelopathies
and developmental epilepsy genes; and (5) for the first time in the Jasper’s series
describes the current efforts to translate the discoveries in epilepsy disease
mechanisms into new therapeutic strategies. The editors were assisted in reviewing
the chapters by an editorial advisory board consisting of Giuseppe Biagini, Amy
Brooks-Kayal, Wolfgang Löscher, Helen Scharfman, Phil Schwartzkroin, John Swann, and
Annamaria Vezzani.
Published concurrently on July 2, 2012 as Jasper’s Basic Mechanisms of the
Epilepsies, Fourth Edition (Contemporary Neurology Series 80) (J.L.
Noebels, M. Avoli, M.A. Rogawski, R.W. Olsen and A.V. Delgado-Escueta, eds.) by
Oxford University Press, USA | ISBN-10: 0199746540 | ISBN-13: 978-0199746545.
The NCBI Bookshelf online book version was produced separately. Chapters in the
online book version may have additional or revised text. The specific version
consulted should be cited.
