Subunit Composition of Neurotransmitter Receptors in the Immature and in the Epileptic Brain

Figure 1

Evolution of neurotransmitter receptors expression over development. During the critical period (shaded rectangle), excitatory receptors are overexpressed, and inhibitory receptors are underexpressed compared to any other period of life. Approximate human ages are expressed in years (x-axis, upper row) and approximate rodent ages are expressed as postnatal days (x-axis, lower row). Legend: AMPA: alpha-amino-3-hydroxy-5-methyl-4-isoxazolepropionic acid. GABA: gamma-aminobutyric acid. NMDA: N-methyl-D-aspartate (adapted with permission from Rakhade and Jensen [1], by permission of Macmillan Publishers, Ltd., © 2009).