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Glutamatergic Pathways

Their Relevance for Psychiatric Diseases

  • Chapter
Dopamine and Glutamate in Psychiatric Disorders

Abstract

Glutamate is the main excitatory neurotransmitter in the mammalian central nervous system (CNS). Its effects are mediated through a large variety of ionotropic and metabotropic receptors abundantly expressed along the whole extent of the neuraxis. Abnormal regulation of glutamatergic transmission is, therefore, a key factor that underlies the appearance and progression of many neurodegenerative and psychiatric diseases. Unfortunately, the success of therapeutic strategies aimed at modulating glutamatergic transmission has been variable owing to the widespread distribution of glutamate receptors throughout the brain and the importance of glutamate in normal brain functioning. Although the importance of glutamatergic transmission in the modulation of neuronal activity involved in processing limbic and cognitive information has long been established, the complexity of the neuronal pathways involved combined with the multifarious effects glutamate could mediate via pre- and postsynaptic interactions with various receptor subtypes, have led to important controversies regarding the exact role glutamate plays in psychiatric diseases. However, substantial progress has been made over the past 10 yr in dissecting out the anatomy, physiology, and pharmacology of various neuronal pathways whereby glutamate could functionally modulate integrative processing of complex cognitive information. This chapter briefly summarizes some of these observations and considers their implications in our understanding of the anatomo-patho-physiology of psychiatric diseases, particularly schizophrenia, for which various hypotheses based on abnormal glutamatergic/dopaminergic transmission have been put forward to explain the neurochemical dysfunction of this disease (1–15).

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Division of Neuroscience, Yerkes National Primate Research Center, Atlanta, GA

    Yoland Smith PhD

  2. Department of Neurology, Emory University, Atlanta, GA

    Yoland Smith PhD

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  1. Yoland Smith PhD
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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Neuropharmacology Zoological Institute, University of Tübingen, Tübingen, Germany

    Werner J. Schmidt PhD

  2. Department of Psychiatry, New York University School of Medicine, New York, NY

    Maarten E. A. Reith PhD

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© 2005 Humana Press Inc., Totowa, NJ

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Smith, Y. (2005). Glutamatergic Pathways. In: Schmidt, W.J., Reith, M.E.A. (eds) Dopamine and Glutamate in Psychiatric Disorders. Humana Press. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-59259-852-6_3

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-59259-852-6_3

  • Publisher Name: Humana Press

  • Print ISBN: 978-1-58829-325-1

  • Online ISBN: 978-1-59259-852-6

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