PET studies of domoic acid poisoning in humans: excitotoxic destruction of brain glutamatergic pathways, revealed in measurements of glucose metabolism by positron emission tomography.

We used positron emission tomography to measure hippocampal and medial temporal lobe metabolism in brains of patients intoxicated by domoic acid from Prince Edward Island mussels. This analog of kainic acid specifically excites certain neurons in the hippocampus, and the study revealed a severe reduction of glucose metabolism in this part of the brain which paralleled the absence of long-, medium-, or short-term memory in these patients.