Summary

Here are the main points we've covered:

1. Destroying the ventromedial region of the rat's hypothalamus (VMH) produces a very fat rat.

2. Destroying the lateral region of the rat's hypothalamus (LH) produces a rat that will starve if not tube-fed. Even then, the rat will never regain normal weight level.

3. Stimulating the VMH or the LH generally produces results opposite to the results from destruction of these regions.

4. Most researchers now believe that these regions do not directly control hunger motivation, but instead are part of a complicated network of brain regions that interact to maintain a stable weight level in normal rats, and presumably also in humans.