The present invention addresses the problem of establishing a method for the direct, rapid and simple high-throughput evaluation of an NMDA receptor inhibition activity. An NMDA receptor inhibition activity can be evaluated with high throughput by a method comprising the following steps in this order: (A) bringing a substance of interest into contact with cultured neurons; (B) bringing the cultured neurons into contact with a glutamate solution; (C) immobilizing the cultured neurons; (D) visualizing drebrin clusters of dendritic spines of the cultured neurons; and (E) measuring the line density along the dendrites of the drebrin clusters, and determining that the substance of interest has an NMDA receptor inhibition activity when the line density is higher than the line density of the cultured neurons that are not contacted with the substance of interest.
METHOD FOR HIGH-THROUGHPUT EVALUATION OF NMDA RECEPTOR INHIBITION ACTIVITY