Olney's lesions, also known as NMDA receptor antagonist neurotoxicity (NAT), is a form of brain damage consisting of selective death of neurons but not glia, observed in restricted brain regions of rats and certain other animal models exposed to large quantities of psychoactive drugs that inhibit the normal operation of the neuronal NMDA receptor. NMDA antagonism is common in anesthesia, as well as certain psychiatric treatments.
The visible signs of NAT are named after John Olney, who conducted a study in 1989 to investigate neurotoxicity caused by PCP and related drugs. It is unclear whether the phenomenon is relevant to the practice of modern medicine: most NMDA antagonists are co-administered with other drugs that reduce neurotoxicity, and the phenomenon is only rarely observed in human subjects who abuse the drugs.