High Quality Content by WIKIPEDIA articles! NMDA receptor antagonists are a class of anesthetics that work to antagonize, or inhibit the action of, the N-methyl d-aspartate receptor (NMDAR). They are used as anesthesia for animals and, less commonly, for humans; the state of anesthesia they induce is referred to as dissociative anesthesia. There is evidence that NMDA receptor antagonists can cause a certain type of neurotoxicity or brain damage referred to as Olney`s Lesions in rodents, though such damage has never been observed in primates like humans.