Lennox-Gastaut syndrome and phenotype: Secondary network epilepsies

Abstract

1 year seizure-free. Significance We conceptualize Lennox-Gastaut phenotype as a being a network epilepsy, where key cerebral networks become autonomously unstable. Epileptiform activity in Lennox-Gastaut phenotype, and by implication in LGS, appears to be amplified and expressed through association cortical areas, possibly because the attention and default-mode networks are widely interconnected, fundamental brain networks. Seizure freedom in the subjects who proceeded to lesionectomy suggests that cortical lesions are able to establish and maintain this abnormal unstable network behavior. LGS may be considered a secondary network epilepsy because the unifying epileptic manifestations of the disorder, including PFA and SSW, reflect network dysfunction, rather than the specific initiating process. © 2014 International League Against Epilepsy.