AbstractsPsychology

The experimental work which follows represents one in a series of clinical and research investigations undertaken at the Montreal Neurological Institute aimed at the solution of the problem of epilepsy. In a previous thesis the author has reviewed the social and medical history of epilepsy and summarized the present state of scientific knowledge about this disease (Tower, 1948). The facts presented therein make it clear that epilepsy is one of the important diseases confronting society and the medical profession and demanding a solution. The present state of world conditions underlines this demand, since war carries with it an inevitable aftermath of increase in epileptic patients. But the problem encompasses an even greater scope than the disease itself. Epilepsy gives promise of peculiar suitability to investigations into the mechanisms of nervous system function. The common denominator of most forms of epilepsy and certain other conditions, the generalized seizure, is a potentiality of the normal brain. And the clinical manifestations of the epileptic attack touch upon most, if not all, of the known potentialities of neuronal function from the complexities of thought, dreams and memories, through automatic and reflex activity, to basic crude movements and sensations. One may think of epilepsy as representing an exaggeration or caricature of the normal functioning of the nervous system. [...]