CONDUCTION OF CORTICAL IMPULSES AND MOTOR MANAGEMENT OF CONVULSIVE SEIZURES

Abstract

The origin and physiologic significance of the electroencephalogram are not very well understood in spite of the fact that it has become a useful, and in many respects a reliable, clinical test. It is reasonable to assume that at least the more rapid of the "brain waves" either are action potentials or by some process of integration are derived from action potentials of ganglion cell groups and fiber tracts. Some clinical evidence points in this direction, and records taken from the exposed cortex of laboratory animals by Bremer and his associates,¹ among others, showed a marked response of rapid activity following sensory stimulation. Adrian has shown that activity originating in the motor cortex initiates impulses in the pyramidal tract both with the animal at rest and during convulsive attacks. In his paper with Moruzzi² he established three basic facts: ... that in the anesthetized animal there is usually a