Because of its sheer abundance throughout the central nervous system in parallel with its complicated role in several metabolic pathways, the function of glutamate as a neurotransmitter and its clinical significance has only recently been illuminated.

This brief review article makes the argument that glutamate is deserving of its newfound attention within the neuroscience literature and that many directions of important research have yet to be explored. Glutamate is an excitatory neurotransmitter with

Outside the community of biomedical scientists, glutamate is probably best known as “monosodium glutamate” or “MSG” which is the sodium salt of glutamic acid and a white crystalline solid used as a flavor or taste enhancer in food (food additive number