These compounds thus exert a neuroprotective property and are useful in the therapeutic treatment of neuronal loss in hypoxia, brain or spinal cord ischemia, brain or spinal cord trauma, as well as being useful for the treatment of epilepsy, Alzheimer's disease, Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis, Huntington's disease, Down's Syndrome, Korsakoff's disease and other neurodegenerative disorders.