This volume presents the experience of the Zurich Epilepsy

Surgery Center with stereotactic recordings and stimulations

of various subcortical nuclei, with special reference to the Forel

H fields, the thalamic nuclei and the periaqueductal gray matter.

Stereotactic lesions structures have frequently been performed

with the aim to prevent seizure spread along preexisting and

preferred seizure propagating pathways or to directly destroy

diseased areas of the brain that act as a focus of epileptic

discharges. Although the usefulness of stereotactic epilepsy

surgery has been repeatedly challenged, the extensive knowledge

deriving from early attempts to suppress seizures by stereotactic

epilepsy surgery is relevant to the renewed interest in

neurostimulation for the treatment of epilepsy. Deep Brain

Stimulation (DBS) of these structures aims to influence these key

"pacemaker" areas in the brain and is gaining increasing interest

as a possible new surgical modality for treatment of patients with

intractable epilepsy. Thus, the aim of this volume is to improve

understanding of the involvement of subcortical structures in

seizure genesis and propagation, and to address the important

issues of DC recording/polarisation and biochemical measurement

of excitatory and inhibitory transmitters released in the primary

epileptogenic area during epileptic discharges.