Main description:

The book chapters cover different aspects of epilepsy genetics, starting with the "classical" concept of epilepsies as ion channel disorders. The second part of the book gives credit to the fact that by now non-ion channel genes are recognized as equally important causes of epilepsy. The concluding chapters are designed to offer the reader insight into current methods in epilepsy research. Each chapter is self-contained and deals with a selected topic of interest.

Contents:

Genetic Heterogeneity in Familial Nocturnal Frontal Lobe Epilepsy
Ortrud K. Steinlein

Potassium Channel Genes and Benign Familial Neonatal Epilepsy
Snezana Maljevic and Holger Lerche

Mutant GABAA Receptor Subunits in Genetic (Idiopathic) Epilepsy
Shinichi Hirose

The Role of Calcium Channel Mutations in Human Epilepsy
Antonio Gambardella and Angelo Labate

Mechanisms Underlying Epilepsies Associated with Sodium Channel Mutations
Ortrud K. Steinlein

The Progressive Myoclonus Epilepsies
Berge A. Minassian

Genetics Advances in Autosomal Dominant Focal Epilepsies: Focus on DEPDC5
Stephanie Baulac

PRRT2: A Major Cause of Infantile Epilepsy and other Paroxysmal Disorders of Childhood
Carlo Nobile and Pasquale Striano

LGI1: From Zebrafish to Human Epilepsy
John K. Cowell

Morphogenesis and Timing of Genetically-Programmed Brain Malformations in Relation to Epilepsy
Harvey B. Sarnat and Laura Flores-Sarnat

Remind Me Again What Disease We are Studying? A Population Genetics, Genetic Analysis, and Real Data Perspective on Why Progress on Identifying Genetic Influences on Common Epilepsies has Been So Slow
David A. Greenberg and William L. Stewart

Monogenic Models of Absence Epilepsy: Windows into the Complex Balance between Inhibition and Excitation in Thalamocortical Microcircuits
Atul Maheshwari and Jeffrey L. Noebels

New Technologies in Molecular Genetics: The Impact on Epilepsy Research
Ingo Helbig

Epigenetic Mechanisms in Epilepsy Katja Kobow and Ingmar Blumcke