Professor Uchimura, Ammon's horn sclerosis, and the German influence on Japanese neuroscience.

In the early twentieth century, the German laboratories of Spielmeyer and the Vogts proposed competing pathogenetic theories for Ammon's horn sclerosis. Spielmeyer's vascular pathogenesis theory was initially preferred, but the Vogts' Pathoklise theory was later favored. From 1925 to 1927, Uchimura worked in the Spielmeyer's laboratory. There, Uchimura first described the detailed vascular anatomy of the hippocampus. His work formed the basis for the vascular theory of Ammon's horn sclerosis. Because of Germany's prominence in medical science and Japan's preference for the German medical system, Uchimura among many young Japanese medical scientists, travelled to the institutes of German-speaking Europe for training.

Clinical neuropathology of the epilepsies in the 100 years of the ILAE (1909-2009).

The paper describes the history of the clinical neuropathology of the epilepsies in the last hundred years from microscopy to molecular neuropathology. The main focus is on the concepts of hippocampal sclerosis and its discussion of causative lesion or consequence of seizures, and the concept of developmental disturbances in respect to general epileptogenicity. Clinical neuropathology remains an important discipline in the future of epileptology and brain research especially in the area of molecular genetics. Neuropathology will help to understand the stages of epileptogenesis and the factors responsible for the progressive nature of the disease.