ABSTRACT
A standard text defines epilepsy as a symptom due to excessive temporary neuronal discharging which results from intracranial or extracranial causes: epilepsy is characterised by discrete episodes, which tend to be recurrent, in which there is a disturbance of movement, sensation, behaviour and/or consciousness. Nerve cells are the means by which sensations are transmitted from the sense organs to the brain, and by which impulses from the brain are transmitted to muscles to initiate and control their movement. The definition at the head of this section referred to ‘disturbance of movement, sensation, behaviour and/or consciousness’. Partial seizures are a form of epilepsy where there is always a particular focus in the brain from which the epileptic activity arises. ‘Temporal lobe seizures’ are the most common type of partial seizure and will therefore be described in a little more detail.
