In vivo microdialysis techniques were used to examine whether endogenous excitatory amino acids exert a tonic facilitatory influence on striatal dopamine release. Local application of NMDA and non-NMDA antagonists at 10 microM was without an effect on basal dopamine release while 100 microM and 1 mM of these drugs significantly enhanced the release. Our findings do not support the idea that excitatory amino acids have a tonic excitatory effect on striatal dopamine release.