Invited review: clinical and basic neurophysiology of generalised epilepsies.

Electroencephalography (EEG) clarifies several aspects of generalised epileptic seizures and epilepsies. For the clinician, it assists in the diagnosis of the epileptic condition and helps assign the disorder to an appropriate syndrome. This assignation and the quantity of epileptic discharges estimate severity and prognosis. When combined with relevant basic science investigations, EEG studies may disclose significant pathophysiological mechanisms. Therefore, this paper first describes EEG characteristics of the several disorders included under the broad category of "generalised". The review then relates these phenomena to germane experimental data intending that this binocular survey will provide a more meaningful perspective of these disorders.