NCT00980408

The Influence of Glutamate on Memory in Humans

The NMDA Receptor Co-agonist D-cycloserine Accelerates Associative Learning in the Human Hippocampal CA Region

• Status: Completed
• Phase: N/A
• Study type: Interventional
• Enrollment: 120 (actual)
• Sponsor: University Hospital, Bonn · Academic / Other
• Sex: All
• Age: 18 Years – 35 Years
• Healthy volunteers: Accepted

Summary

The hippocampus is particularly laden with n-methyl-d-aspartate (NMDA) receptors, and is at the same time one of the most important sites in declarative memory. The rationale of this study is that the NMDA partial agonist D-Cycloserine will promote learning compared to a placebo. On the other hand, the NMDA receptor antagonist Memantine might lead to reduced memory. We believe that the influence of NMDA receptors on memory can be determined via acute co-activation of the NMDA receptors with Cycloserine® (King Pharmaceuticals Ltd, active ingredient: DCycloserin, dose: 250 mg) and Memantine (Axura®, Merz, active ingredient: Memantine, dose: 20 mg)on both a behavioral and functional (fMRI) level.

Conditions

• Healthy Individuals

Interventions

Type	Name	Description
DRUG	Sugar pill	250 mg, one dose, 60 min prior
DRUG	Sugar pill	250 mg, one dose, 60 min prior
DRUG	Sugar pill	20 mg, one dose, 8 hours prior
DRUG	Sugar pill	20 mg, one dose, 8 hours prior
DRUG	Glutamic Acid	250 mg, one dose, 60 minutes prior
DRUG	Glutamic Acid	250 mg, one dose, 60 minutes prior
DRUG	Memantine	20 mg, one dose, 8 hours prior
DRUG	Memantine	20 mg, one dose, 8 hours prior

Timeline

• Start date: 2008-06-01
• Primary completion: 2011-08-01
• Completion: 2011-08-01
• First posted: 2009-09-21
• Last updated: 2014-12-03

Locations

1 site across 1 country: Germany