GLUTAMATE: READY!" Wow, I want that pizza and I want it NOW!

?WAIT, HIT THE BRAKES!?

I once read an interesting analogy about how the brain handles decision-making.?

Picture this: someone walks into the room holding a steaming slice of hot pizza, and you think, " Wow, I want that pizza and I want it NOW! " The neurons responsible for initiating your acting on that thought are about to send impulses skyrocketing across your brain to achieve your aim when suddenly another thought comes to mind. "?

Maybe I shouldn't eat pizza because truth is told, I am trying to lose weight. " A different group of neurons immediately sends a counter impulse to put everything on hold. But then you smell that pizza again and decide that you'll eat a little bit of it anyway.??This is possible due to the fact that we possess different neurotransmitters to achieve differing goals. There are excitatory neurotransmitters, which push neurons to transmit signals, and inhibitory neurotransmitters, which make signal transmission less likely.

To get a better sense of how important this little molecule is, consider that more than 90 percent of all apses are primed to release glutamate. That makes for a lot of glutamates your brain syn action going on. At the same time, glutamate is also used by the brain to produce its alter-ego, gamma-Aminobutyric acid ( GABA ), the major inhibitory neurotransmitter of our nervous system.?

As it turns out, glutamate features prominently in yet another crucial area of brain health. It also assists in learning and memory. Here's the story. The connections between two or more neurons are strengthened or weakened depending on how often those neurons are activated in tandem.?

According to the theory of Hebb ( one of the most famous theories in the field of neuroscience ), " neurons that fire together, wire together, " while those that fire out of sync ... lose their link.?

?It is widely believed that this process, called long-term potentiation ( LTP ), is based on glutamate, or a slightly different version of glutamate that goes by the rather impressive name of N - methyl - D- aspartate, or NMDA for short.?

NMDA possesses its own specific set of receptors in the memory centers of the brain. These receptors act as gates, which are generally kept locked. Glutamate ( in the form of NMDA ) is the key to opening these locks. When the neurotransmitter arrives, the gates open, allowing information to flow into the neuron.?Over time, the more frequently this happens, the longer the gates will stay open. The feedback loop that ensues forms the basis of synaptic plasticity, which is the biological equivalent of memory formation.?

But let's put all this information into a brain-food context. Our ability to initiate an action, to refrain from doing something, and to form long-term memories are all dependent on the amino acid glutamate.

Glutamate ( or glutamic acid ) is a non-essential amino acid, which means that the brain is capable of producing it on its own. However, once again, there is a catch. The brain needs the sugar glucose to make glutamate. Glutamate is formed when the brain breaks down glucose in a process called metabolism, which is the very same process the brain uses to make energy. This makes most of our mental activities highly dependent on our dietary choices, and specifically on our intake of carbohydrates.