A lesion in the lateral hypothalamus will cause a lab rat to:
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Answer: D. refuse to eat until force fed
Explanation
The lateral hypothalamus serves as the primary brain center for initiating feeding behavior. Lesions in this specific region permanently destroy internal hunger signals in laboratory animals. Affected subjects refuse food entirely and will starve without external artificial nutritional support. The hypothalamus regulates vital physiological drives including hunger, thirst, and temperature control. Dual-center theory contrasts this region with the ventromedial hypothalamus which stops eating. Neuroscientists use precise surgical lesions to study neural circuits controlling energy balance.
Understanding neural appetite control helps researchers investigate human eating disorders and obesity. Animal models provide critical insights into brain damage impacts on basic survival drives. Medical interventions sometimes target these pathways to treat severe metabolic or weight conditions. Drinking excessively water relates more closely to lateral preoptic area damage. Refusing to drink until forced describes adipsia, managed through separate neural pathways. Eating until becoming obese results from damage to the ventromedial hypothalamus instead.
- Subject
- Psychology
- Category
- Psychology
- Topic
- —
- Difficulty
- medium
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