Potentiation of amphetamine-induced arousal by food deprivation: effect of hypothalamic lesions.

Locomotor activity was studied in rats with lesions of the basomedial hypothalamus following food deprivation (0, 1, 2, and 4 days) and amphetamine (0, .5, 1.0, and 2.0 mg/kg). Control animals showed the normal potentiation of amphetamine-induced locomotor activity by starvation. Animals with lesions, however, did not differ, when deprived, from satiated control animals in their response to amphetamine. These results suggest that behavioral arousal produced by food deprivation is mediated by the basomedial hypothalamus.