Professor Seth Grant explains that NMDA receptors are important to forming memories - if we block NMDA receptors, we can block learning.

The NMDA subtype of glutamate receptor is found at almost every synapse in the central nervous system, and it is associated with a lot of proteins that are bound directly to it in what’s known as a protein complex. And if you block the receptor or you block the associated proteins, you can block learning. This suggests that all of those proteins work together as a machine to activate and initiate the learning process, which is in the form of biochemical events downstream from this receptor complex. In other words, the NMDA receptor activates associated proteins that then lay down the memory trace.

nmda, receptor, glutamate, , subtype, memory, trace, biochemical, protein, learning, seth, grant