Kathy R. Magnusson

Department of Anatomy & Neurobiology, College of Veterinary Medicine and Biomedical Sciences, Colorado State University, Fort Collins, CO 80523

Received 4/15/98 Accepted 4/20/98

4. PERSPECTIVE

There is clear evidence that aging negatively affects some of the binding sites on the NMDA receptor complex. Whether this is a matter of receptor complex loss, overall subunit changes, or alterations within subpopulations of receptors still needs to be determined. More effort is also needed toward determining the underlying cause of the alterations. If different populations of receptors are involved, it behooves us to focus more on subdivisions of the cerebral cortex and hippocampus in order to better understand the regional and cellular changes that are occurring. The declines in electrophysiological output and interactions with other transmitter systems and the correlations with behavioral dysfunctions indicate that the binding changes in the NMDA receptor have a functional consequence to the behaving animal and suggest that further examination of interventions that act on the NMDA receptor will be beneficial in preventing or reversing the memory declines that occur as we grow older.