The role of excitatory amino acids in neuropsychiatric illness.

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.