Andrew Huberman· PhD
The actions of ketamine are somewhat complex although we know, for instance, that ketamine acts on the glutamate system, it tends to disrupt the transmission or the relationship, I should say, between glutamate, not glutamine, not the amino acid, but glutamate, the neurotransmitter, and the so-called NMDA, the N-methyl-D-aspartate receptor, which is a receptor that's very special in the nervous system because when glutamate binds to the NMDA receptor, it tends to offer the opportunity for that particular synapse to get stronger, so-called neuroplasticity and ketamine is a, essentially, an antagonist, although it works through a complicated mechanism, it tends to block that binding of glutamate to the NMDA receptor or the effectiveness of that.