Emotional learning and glutamate: translational perspectives

Anxiety disorders are a common focus of clinical concern and certain forms of anxiety may be conceptualized as disorders of emotional learning. Behavior therapies effective in the treatment of anxiety are modeled on extinction training as a means of reducing pathological anxiety. The present understanding of human anxiety has been informed by preclinical research using rodent models to study the acquisition and extinction of fear. Glutamate appears to have a central role in both of these processes. The authors review this literature and discuss novel applications of D-cycloserine, a partial N-methyl-D-aspartate agonist, for the treatment of anxiety.