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

Glutamate is the predominant excitatory neurotransmitter in the central nervous system. Excitatory amino acid transporter 2 (EAAT2) is primarily responsible for clearance of extracellular glutamate to prevent neuronal excitotoxicity and hyperexcitability.