Relevance of Basic Research to Clinical Data: Good Answers, Wrong Questions!

Do early seizures beget seizures later in life? Clinical data and experimental observations seem to answer that question differently, with a no and a yes, respectively, which may stem from an inadequate readout of what experimental data actually do tell us and a possible simplification of what clinical data indicate. Using specific experimental examples, it is possible to show that in the developing brain, seizures do produce long‐lasting alterations of neuronal excitability, although ongoing seizures are not observed in adults. The findings suggest that the long‐lasting changes in developmental programs and network activity that seizures induce do not necessarily lead to epilepsy, unless other events that remain to be identified occur.