The role of magnetic resonance imaging techniques in the diagnosis, surgical treatment and biological understanding of epilepsy

Epilepsy is one of the most common and serious neurological disorders (1). Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) is the imaging modality of choice especially to investigate seizures with focal onset. Whilst imaging was first used solely to identify a causative lesion, the vast increase in the range and complexity of MRI techniques has led to additional roles in surgical planning and in the understanding of the effects of epilepsy on the brain in vivo. Neurosurgical treatment remains a vastly underutilised technique is those with refractory focal epilepsy and imaging is particularly key in this setting. In this special issue devoted to MRI and epilepsy, I have assembled a series of papers that present the role of different techniques in patients with epilepsy.