glutamate

noun

1. Any salt or ester of glutamic acid.
2. The anion of glutamic acid in its role as a neurotransmitter.

   “At a synaptic level, the axon terminal having to repeatedly release glutamate is the lecturer droning on repetitively; the moment when the postsynaptic threshold is passed and the NMDA receptors first activate is the dendritic spine finally getting it.”