NMDA RECEPTORS OF THE VESTIBULAR NUCLEI NEURONS

Cloning and pharmacological studies have shown that glutamatergic rece ptors can be divided in two classes (refer to Table 1): ionotropic rec eptors including N-methyl-D-aspartate (NMDA) and non-NMDA subtypes, an d the G-protein-coupled metabotropic receptors (glutamate metabotropic receptor). There are two types of non-NMDA receptors: the AMPA/low-af finity kainate receptor type (the AMPA receptors) activated by a speci fic agonist, the alpha-amino-3-hydroxy-5-methyl-4-isoxalone propionate (AMPA), and the high affinity kainate receptors. The vestibular nucle i neurones are endowed with all these types of glutamatergic receptors , which fits well with the fact that various afferents, including the primary vestibular afferents, most probably use glutamate or aspartate as a neurotransmitter. This article is aimed at summarising several p ast studies of our group and some more recent data obtained in the in vitro whole-brain preparation concerning the NMDA receptors of the cen tral vestibular neurones. In that process, we will detail also many va luable studies of other groups that had been devoted to the same topic .