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by facetube 3577 days ago
L-phenyalanine apparently "inhibits NMDAR current in hippocampal neurons by competing for the glycine-binding site" [1] and is also an essential amino acid. Oops.

[1] http://www.nature.com/mp/journal/v7/n4/full/4000976a.html

1 comments

Only at concentrations seen when the model has phenylketonuria. It's a rare disorder[0].

Steve Jobs was know for eating fruit high in phenyalanine (well tyrosine)[1]. It may have contributed to his high performance.

[0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phenylketonuria#Genetics [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tyrosine

Yeah, admittedly a bit of a tongue-in-cheek stretch.