J Neuropsychiatry Clin Neurosci 1990; 2:44-52
Copyright © 1990 by American Neuropsychiatric Association
The role of excitatory amino acids in neuropsychiatric illness
DC Javitt and SR Zukin
Department of Psychiatry, Albert Einstein College of Medicine, Montefiore Medical Center, New York, Bronx 10461.
Over the past several years, research has demonstrated that the excitatory
amino acids serve as the major excitatory neurotransmitters in cerebral
cortex and hippocampus. Neurons that contain excitatory amino acids play
crucial roles in neuropsychological functioning, learning, and memory. In
addition, these neurons exert descending control over subcortical
structures that is behaviorally antagonistic to the effects mediated by the
ascending dopaminergic system. Disturbances of excitatory amino acid
systems may contribute to the pathogenesis of schizophrenia and to other
neuropsychiatric syndromes associated with delirium or dementia.
