Neuronal Growth and Neuronal Loss in Kindling Epileptogenesis

Goddard published his first brief description of the kindling phenomenon in 196736. Although we have learned quite a lot about this model of epilepsy in the last 30 years, the underlying mechanisms continue to elude us. Part of the difficulty arises from the fact that various patterns of neural activation, we now know, can trigger a wide variety of long-lasting post-activation effects. Excess neural activation (e.g. epileptiform events) can produce an even greater number of effects, and any of these could contribute to the development of an epileptogenic state.