Food deprivation facilitates hypothalamic drinking

Abstract

Rats were implanted with chronic electrodes in the lateral hypothalamic drinking area and were maintained on ad lib water. One to three days of food deprivation slightly decreased the minumum amout of current necessary to induce the water-satiated rats to drink. It is proposed that food deprivation exerts a facilitatory effect on the neural substrate governing water intake, but that this effect is usually obscured by the fact that food-deprived animals need less water to maintain their normal body-fluid balance. © 1970.