Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-xbtfd Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-13T02:59:02.216Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Physiologic Basis for Focal Motor Seizures and the Jacksonian “March” Phenomena

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  18 September 2015

John T. Murphy ,
Hon C. Kwan ,
W.A. MacKay  and
Yiu C. Wong
John T. Murphy*
Affiliation:
Department of Physiology, University of Toronto
Hon C. Kwan
Affiliation:
Department of Physiology, University of Toronto
W.A. MacKay
Affiliation:
Department of Physiology, University of Toronto
Yiu C. Wong
Affiliation:
Department of Physiology, University of Toronto
*
Department of Physiology, Medical Sciences Bldg, University of Toronto, Toronto, Ontario, Canada M5S 1A8
Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Summary:

Core share and HTML view are not available for this content. However, as you have access to this content, a full PDF is available via the ‘Save PDF’ action button.

Mechanisms underlying focal motor seizures and the Jacksonian “march” have been explored on the basis of recent physiologic data concerning the “nested ring” spatial and functional organization of motor cortex. Focal motor seizures can be understood in terms of the focal representation at motor cortex of elements controlling movement of a limb part about a single joint. The preponderance of three foci of origin of motor seizures, first reported by Hughlings Jackson, are related to lower thresholds of excitability at these loci, as demonstrated for forelimbs in the case of subhuman primates, and to the resultant bias of peripheral and central input to activate these loci. The “march” phenomenon which typically involves specific patterns of spread in the forearm, is explained in terms of the recently discovered nested ring organization. Thus the centrifugal spread of excitation from a particular locus in motor cortex would demand the pattern of spread of convulsive movements generally observed in clinical situations. The latter involves spread from face or leg to shoulder, forearm, then to hand, or conversely.

The physiological basis of activation and/or inhibition of focal motor epilepsy by peripheral stimuli is also now available on the basis of current experimental evidence. Thus the point to point coupling of periphery and motor cortex as defined in terms of control of limb parts about single forelimb joints, provides a substantial understanding of many of the clinical events sometimes termed “reflex” epilepsy.

Type
Research Article
Information
Canadian Journal of Neurological Sciences , Volume 7 , Issue 2 , May 1980 , pp. 79 - 85
Copyright
Copyright © Canadian Neurological Sciences Federation 1980

References

Asanuma, H. (1975). Recent developments in the study of the columnar arrangement of neurons within the motor cortex. Physiological Reviews, 55, 143–156.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Chauvel, P., Lamarche, M. and Pumain, R. (1975). Central seizures induced by proprioceptive afferents: an experimental study in the monkey. In: Meldrum, B.S. and Marsden, C.D (Eds.), Advances in Neurology, vol. 10, Raven Press, New York, 129–132.Google Scholar
Chauvel, P., Louvel, J. and Lamarche, M. (1978). Transcortical reflexes and focal motor epilepsy. Electroen-ceph. clin. Neurophysiol. 45, 309–318.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Conrad, B., Matsunami, K., Meyer-Lohmann, J., Wiesendanger, M. and Brooks, V.B. (1974). Cortical load compensation during voluntary elbow movements. Brain Research, 71, 507–514.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Ferrier, D. (1876). The Functions of the Brain. Smith-Elder, London.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Fetz, E.E. and Finochio, D.V. (1975). Correlations between activity of motor cortex cells and arm muscles during operantly conditioned response patterns. Exptl. Brain Research, 23, 217–240.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Fritsch, G. and Hitzig, E. (1870). Uber die elektrische Erregbarkeit des Grosshirns. Arch. Anat. Physiol. 37, 300–332.Google Scholar
Goldring, S. and Ratcheson, R. (1972). Human motor cortex: sensory input data from single neuron recordings. Science, 175, 1493–1495.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Holmes, G. (1927). Local epilepsy. Lancet 1, 957–962.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Jackson, J.H. (1958). In: Selected writings of John Hughlings Jackson, vols. 1 and 2, Taylor, J. (Ed.), Basic Books, New York.Google Scholar
Kwan, H.C., Mackay, W.A., Murphy, J.T. and Wong, Y.C. (1978). Spatial organization of precentral cortex in awake primates. II. Motor outputs. J. Neurophysiol. 41, 1120–1131.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Leyton, A.S.F. and Sherrington, C.S. (1917). Observations on the excitable cortex of the chimpanzee, orang-utan, and gorilla. Q.J. Expt. Physiol. 11, 135–222.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Murphy, J.T., Kwan, H.C., Mackay, W.A. and Wong, Y.C. (1978). Spatial organization of precentral cortex in awake primates. III. Input-output coupling. J. Neurophysiol. 41, 1132–1139.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Murphy, J.T., Kwan, H.C. and Wong, Y.C. (1979). Differential effects of reciprocal wrist torques on responses of somatotopically identified neurons of precentral cortex in awake primates. Brain Research, 172, 329–337.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Murphy, J.T., Wong, Y.C. and Kwan, H.C. (1975). Afferent-efferent linkages in motor cortex for single forelimb muscles. J. Neurophysiol. 38, 990–1014.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Penfield, W.G. and Boldrey, E. (1937). Somatic motor and sensory representation in the cerebral cortex of man as studied by electrical stimulation. Brain, 60, 389–443.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Penfield, W.G. and Erickson, T.C. (1941). Epilepsy and Cerebral Localization. Charles C Thomas, Springfield, 111.Google Scholar
Phillips, C.G. (1975). Laying of the ghost of ‘muscles versus movement’. Can. J. Neurol. Sci. 2, 209–218.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Schäfer, E.A. (1900). The cerebral cortex. In: Textbook of Physiology, Schäfer, E.A. (Ed.), vol. 2, pp. 697–782. Young J. Pentland, Edinburgh and London.Google Scholar
Strick, Peter L. (1976). Anatomical analysis of ventrolateral thalamic input to primate motor cortex. J. Neurophysiol. 39, 1020–1031.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Walshe, F.M.R. (1943). On the mode of representation of movements in the motor cortex, with special reference to ‘convulsions beginning unilaterally’ (Jackson). Brain, 66, 104–139.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Wong, Y.C. Kwan, H.C, Mackay, W.A. and Murphy, J.T. (1978). Spatial organization of precentral cortex in awake primates. I. Somatosensory inputs. J. Neurophysiol. 41, 1107–1119.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Wong, Y.C, Kwan, H.C. and Murphy, J.T. (1979a). Activity of precentral neurons during torque triggered hand movements in awake primates. Can. J. Physiol. Pharmacol. 57. 174–184.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Wong, Y.C, Kwan, H.C. and Murphy, J.T. (1979b). Patterns of early and late discharges in somatotopically identified precentral neurons in awake monkeys in response to somatic inputs. Can. J. Physiol. Pharmacol. 57, 574–577.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Woolsey, C.N., Settlage, P.H., Meyer, D.R., Sencer, W., Hamuy, T.P. and Travis, A.M. (1952). Patterns of localization in precentral and “supplementary” motor areas and their relation to the concept of a premotor area. Res. Publ. Assoc. Res. Nervous Mental Diseases, 30, 238–264.Google Scholar