Kainate and Temporal Lobe Epilepsies

Abstract Understanding the role of kainate signals in modulating ongoing neuronal and network-driven patterns of activity has enormously benefited from the parallel investigation of pathological and normal tissue. The past three decades have shown how kainate generates seizures and how neurons susceptible to kainate are also the ones that use it for ongoing biological functions. Clearly, the system relies on the unique capacity of kainate signals to generate biologically relevant patterns by activating a wide range of cellular mechanisms that converge to enhance neuronal excitability. Theses systems, however, “live dangerously,” since insults can transform these activities into severe life-long neurological disorders. It is this link that we must better understand if we want to efficiently block pharmacoresistant TLE.