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Abstract
Schizophrenia is a devastating psychiatric illness characterized by a diverse array of structural, functional, and molecular brain abnormalities and a concomitant range of psychotic, affective, and cognitive symptoms. Despite over a century of research on this debilitating illness, the biological mechanisms of schizophrenia remain unclear. Dysfunction of the glutamatergic neurotransmitter system is, to date, one of the most influential hypotheses of schizophrenia, and many of the structural and functional abnormalities observed in schizophrenia can be linked to N-methyl-D-aspartate receptor hypofunction. Understanding the role of glutamatergic neurotransmitter system dysfunction promises to aid in elucidating the etiology of schizophrenia. Motivated by a need to synthesize findings across a wide range of fields within the neurosciences, this review will summarize extant literature of glutamatergic neurotransmission in terms of cellular mechanisms, anatomical and oscillatory networks, and genetics related to schizophrenia, and how these factors play a role in other illnesses spanning the psychosis spectrum.