One of the main questions is whether prolonged febrile
seizures trigger mesial temporal lobe sclerosis and epileptogenesis. Indeed, rodent pups submitted to febrile seizures
present with spontaneous seizure in adulthood.84 In addition, they show enhanced susceptibility to kainic acid83 and
enhanced long-term potentiation induction in adulthood.
In particular, this proexcitatory condition does not involve
evident neuronal loss, which is different from what is seen
in human TLE. Another difference is that in the febrile seizure model, seizures are induced by hyperthermia and not
by fever, as in the human condition, which may implicate
alternative mechanisms.