Hello. Welcome to the chemicals of your brain. Today: glutamate.

Glutamate is the primary excitatory neurotransmitter in your brain. It basically is the “gas petal” of the brain. Too much makes your cells work themselves to death and causes cognitive problems, and too little also leads to cognitive problems. Too much can also cause seizures. Be careful when messing with glutamate.

I will now take questions. Please ask your questions!

edit: 'gas pedal' - not 'petal'

I did legitimately struggle to think of the right spelling when originally writing this...

=> Posted in: s/brainchemicals | 🐰 AsherFisc [mod, Psychiatry nerd and pharmacology enthusiast.]

Jan 14 · 5 days ago · 👍 me

15 Comments ↓

=> 🚀 stack · Jan 14 at 18:57:

I like 'gas petal', but I think you mean 'gas pedal'?

=> 🚀 stack · Jan 14 at 18:59:

Also how do I get my hands on some glutamate? I think I am having said 'cognitive problems' What form is it in?

=> 🍀 gritty · Jan 14 at 22:01:

is this included in supplements?

=> 🎵 jmcs · Jan 14 at 22:50:

insert

Y'all got any more of them glutamates?

meme here :)

=> 👻 darkghost · Jan 15 at 00:20:

Glutamate is the anionic form of glutamic acid, one of the non-essential amino acids. Before you start sprinkling monosodium glutamate all over everything you eat, it does not freely cross the blood brain barrier so you cannot supplement your neurotransmitter levels through diet.

=> 🐰 AsherFisc [OP/mod, Psychiatry nerd and pharmacology enthusiast.] · Jan 15 at 02:51:

As @darkghost mentioned. It is not possible to supplement it, but you can modulate it with certain drugs - mainly nootropics.

=> 🚀 stack · Jan 15 at 02:53:

I have an idea: can we inject it directly into the brain? like into the neck?

=> 🐰 AsherFisc [OP/mod, Psychiatry nerd and pharmacology enthusiast.] · Jan 15 at 02:56:

I wouldn’t recommend that @stack. It might be too dangerous!

Also, there are so many other neurotransmitters that are involved in cognition: dopamine, serotonin, acetylcholine, histamine (yes, the allergy one), norepinephrine, GABA, among all the others.

=> 🚀 stack · Jan 15 at 03:03:

So many things to inject into the neckhole!

=> 🚀 stack · Jan 15 at 03:10:

Sorry, I don't mean to be disruptive. I appreciate your effort to provide this information I wouldn't otherwise come across.

=> 🐰 AsherFisc [OP/mod, Psychiatry nerd and pharmacology enthusiast.] · Jan 15 at 15:32:

No! This is meant for fun, anyway! Inject it into your neckhole...see what happens >:)

=> 👻 darkghost · Jan 15 at 16:20:

Injection of sloppily compounded pharmaceuticals into the cerebrospinal fluid is what killed a number of people a few years back. I think it was NECC.

=> 🐰 AsherFisc [OP/mod, Psychiatry nerd and pharmacology enthusiast.] · Jan 15 at 16:57:

Oh, I bet! It's definitely not something to mess around with! treat your nervous system with respect. RESPECT!!!

=> 🚀 stack · Jan 15 at 17:01:

Or at least keep your lab clean if you are injecting substances into your brain...

=> 🐦 wasolili [...] · Jan 15 at 22:37:

Serotonin doesn't cross the blood brain barrier either, so some people take 5-htp, a serotonin precursor which crosses the blood brain barrier and is then¹ converted to serotonin. Is there anything similar to glutamate?

Be careful when messing with glutamate.

Are there any reasons, good or bad, why people mess with glutamate outside of a medical setting?

¹ although to be pedantic, "then" is a bit inaccurate. while 5-htp does convert to 5-ht while in the brain, it also converts to 5-ht elsewhere as well, leading to lots of the 5-htp metabolizing into 5-ht elsewhere in the body and thus never reaching the brain. (at least, this is my layperson understanding of the process, correct me if I'm wrong)