1. Glutamate inhibits the electrically evoked release of noradrenaline in rabbit brain cortex slices; the inhibition is mediated by adenyl compounds, presumably adenosine. The aim of the present study was to identify the receptors involved in this indirect inhibitory effect of glutamate. Slices of the occipitoparietal cortex were preincubated with [3H]-noradrenaline and then superfused and stimulated by trains of 6 pulses, 100 Hz. 2. The ionotropic glutamate receptor agonists alpha-amino-3-hydroxy-5-methylisoxazole-4-propionate (AM-PA; 10-100 microM), kainate (10-100 microM) and N-methyl-D-aspartate (NMDA; 30-300 microM) but not the metabotropic glutamate receptor agonist, 1-amino-1,3-cyclopentanedicarboxylate (ACPD; 10-100 microM) reduced the electrically evoked overflow of tritium. 3. The effects of AMPA, kainate and NMDA were attenuated or abolished by the adenosine A1-receptor antagonist, 8-cyclopentyl-1,3-dipropylxanthine (DPCPX) as well as by adenosine A1-receptor antagonist, 8-cyclopentyl-1,3-dipropylxanthine (DPCPX) as well as by adenosine deaminase but not by the alpha 2-adrenoceptor antagonist yohimbine, the gamma-aminobutyric acid (GABA) receptor antagonists, bicuculline and 2-hydroxysaclofen and the NO synthase inhibitor NG-nitro-L-arginine methyl ester (L-NAME). 4. The NMDA receptor antagonist, 2-amino-5-phosphonopentanoate (AP5) blocked the inhibitory effect of NMDA but not that of AMPA and kainate. The non-NMDA-receptor antagonist, 6-cyano-7-nitroquinoxaline-2,3-dione (CNQX) blocked the effect of AMPA but not of kainate and NMDA. 5. In addition to decreasing the electrically evoked overflow of tritium, AMPA, kainate and NMDA but not ACPD caused a steep but transient rise of basal tritium efflux. This immediate releasing effect was not significantly changed by DPCPX, adenosine deaminase, yohimbine, bicuculline, 2-hydroxysaclofen and L-NAME (except that L-NAME enhanced the effect of kainate). AP5 and CNQX antagonized the immediate releasing effects in the same way that they antagonized the inhibition by AMPA, kainate and NMDA of the electrically evoked overflow of tritium.6. It is concluded that AMPA, kainate and NMDA, like glutamate, reduce the electrically evoked release of noradrenaline by releasing adenosine or an adenine nucleotide which is then degraded to adenosine. Activation of each of the three ionotropic glutamate receptors, AMPA, kainate and NMDA receptors, but not activation of metabotropic glutamate receptors can initiate this indirect inhibitory effect on the release of noradrenaline (as well as the known noradrenaline releasing effect).