Preface (2002)

This special issue presents the articles selected from the presentations made at the 6th Workshop on the Neurobiology of Epilepsy (WONOEP VI), held at Iguacu Falls, Brazil, on May 8–11, 2001. The theme of “Ictogenesis and Epileptogenesis” was timely because the development of reliable models of seizure-induced epileptogenesis has highlighted the differences between seizure control and control of the epileptogenetic process, and has generated hope that work in the future will not be limited to controlling seizures, which are just symptoms of epilepsy, but can actually alter the course of the illness. A number of communications in this volume explore the differences between ictogenesis and epileptogenesis, and attempt to identify the key steps of both processes and to exploit those differences therapeutically. This effort has brought together a multidisciplinary group of investigators, including geneticists, neurophysiologists, molecular biologists, anatomist, biochemists, mathematicians, and biologists interested in modeling, as well as investigators of other aspects of the broad discipline of neuroscience. It also highlighted the close interactions that have developed between clinicians and scientists. These interactions have resulted in rapid progress, so that a cure for some of the epilepsies is now something we can reasonably dream about. This workshop was held under the auspices of the Commission on Neurobiology of the International League Against Epilepsy, and was supported by both the International League Against Epilepsy and the American Epilepsy Society. A special effort was made to include a number of young scientists from Latin America in the proceedings and the discussions, and this volume highlights some of their very significant contributions. We are particularly grateful to the International League Against Epilepsy and to the American Epilepsy Society for their sponsorship, as well as to the many industry sponsors who made this participation possible through their financial support. Sponsors included Ortho-McNeil/Janssen-Cilag, Pfizer and Novartis (platinum level); Sanofi-Synthelabo, Glaxo-Smith-Kline, and Cyberonics (gold level); and UCB-Pharma and Daiichi Pharmaceuticals (silver level). We are most grateful for the help provided by the scientific committee, composed of Giuliano Avanzini, Jerome Engel, Jr., Brian Meldrum, Pavel Mares, Solomon Moshe, Asla Pitkanen, and Phil Schwartzkroin, and for the help from the staff of the Local Organizing Committee, M. A. Gonzagua and M. Marques. Dr. Noune Aslanian deserves a lot of the credit for the editing of the current volume. Proceedings of the previous WONOEP meetings have been published as supplements to Epilepsy Research(1–4), and, more recently, to Epilepsia(5). We thank the WONOEP participants for an exciting meeting and hope that this publication will contribute in some small way to advancing the field of the neurobiology of epilepsy, and will stimulate progress in understanding the ways in which the many forms epilepsy are generated, how they express themselves through ictal events, and how they can be prevented and, maybe some day, cured. It is hoped that progress in this field, as illustrated in this volume, will attract the interest of young investigators, and that through them, the dawn of this new millennium will signal the crepuscule of epilepsy.