Download or read book Excitatory Amino Acids and the Cerebral Cortex written by Fiorenzo Conti and published by MIT Press. This book was released on 1996 with total page 522 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: It has recently become clear that the excitatory amino acids and their receptors are critically linked to normal processes of development and synaptic transmission, and to learning and memory, as well as to identifiable disease processes such as Alzheimer's disease, epilepsy, and cortical damage due to stroke/ischemia. Moreover, the pharmacological nature and chemical structures of many of the receptors and binding sites for these synaptic mediators and their modulators are becoming known, thereby enabling the cloning of each receptor subtype. Such advances may help immeasurably in the identification of endogenous ligands for the amino acid receptors and the development of pharmaceuticals and other therapeutic interventions in coming years.